On July 7, a landmark agricultural cooperation agreement was signed between Suriname’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (LVV) and China’s Jiangxi Ganliang Co., Ltd., launching the second phase of the China Aid Agriculture Technical Assistance Project in Suriname’s Saramacca district.
The 245 million Surinamese dollar initiative is fully funded through China’s official foreign aid program, carrying forward three more years of collaborative agricultural development work between the two nations that delivered tangible progress in the first phase. Minister Mike Noersalim represented the Surinamese ministry at the signing ceremony, while Jiangxi Ganliang Co., Ltd. was represented by Zheng Junjie.
Building on the outcomes of the first phase of cooperation in Saramacca, the second phase of the project will focus on several key areas of agricultural innovation and capacity building. Core work includes the breeding and research of new field crop varieties, specifically corn and soybeans. Researchers will also develop and screen improved varieties of high-value fruits and vegetables, including dragon fruit, citrus, muskmelon, and watermelon.
A major component of the new phase will center on Juncao technology, a sustainable Chinese agricultural innovation that uses grass as a growing substrate for edible and medicinal mushroom cultivation, with additional potential for other cutting-edge agricultural applications. The project will carry out technical research, open-air demonstration activities, and targeted skills training for local agricultural workers at a 4-hectare project site in Tijgerkreek, Saramacca.
Over the three-year implementation period, the program aims to train 900 local participants in total. It will host 18 separate 10-day training courses that combine hands-on practical instruction with theoretical learning, accommodating 50 participants per course. Beyond local training, 30 selected participants will also get the opportunity to attend advanced further training in China to deepen their technical expertise.