The Confucius Institute at Durban University of Technology and the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Department of Agriculture successfully held the “Chinese + Agricultural Technology Training” – Grass Technology Workshop last week. The workshop attracted the active participation of nearly 50 local farmers and achieved good results and aroused enthusiastic responses.
At the beginning of the event, Wu Lin, the Chinese director of the Confucius Institute, extended a warm welcome to the participants. Dean Wu gave a detailed introduction from the development process of the “Chinese+” program of the Confucius Institute in Durban to the background of mushroom technology. He encouraged local farmers to actively participate in the “Chinese + Funcao Technology” training program and try to combine mushroom cultivation with mushroom technology, emphasizing that the Confucius Institute in Durban will fully support the application and promotion of “Chinese + Fungi Technology” in the local area, and looks forward to helping more local farmers innovate agricultural skills through workshops and other means, and promoting exchanges and cooperation between China and South Africa in the agricultural field.
In this workshop, the Confucius Institute in Durban specially invited Suzet Bezudenot, Director of the Department of Agricultural Research, Development and Training of the Department of Agriculture of KwaZulu-Natal, and his team to discuss mushroom cultivation and the application of Juncao technology in South Africa. The technicians of the Department of Agriculture explained the technical difficulties in the cultivation process of oyster mushrooms, the high added value and market prospects of oyster mushrooms in the field of food processing, and the wide application of Juncao technology in agriculture and animal husbandry.
Subsequently, the teachers and students of the Confucius Institute in Durban also shared their experiences. With the theme of “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Opportunities in the Juncao Industry”, Song Yuanzhen, a volunteer teacher of the Confucius Institute, introduced the broad prospects of Juncao technology in agricultural innovation in South Africa, focusing on the integration of digital agriculture into Juncao cultivation to improve the connectivity and efficiency of the agricultural supply chain. Confucius Institute participants Kong Rongsheng and Manyo Kelei also shared their experiences in China, especially the harvest they gained during their visit to the Juncao Cultivation Demonstration Base in China. They personally felt the successful experience of the Juncao industry in environmental protection and poverty alleviation, and hoped that these experiences could be replicated in South Africa to encourage more young people to work together to promote the localization of Juncao technology.
