24 November 2008 Chinese agriculture Vice-Minister among visitors to Lincoln University

Top level delegations from China continue to be impressed with professional development and visitor programmes provided by Lincoln University.

Over 13-19 November 21 members of the 2008 United Nation's Development Programme's Xiao Kang Advanced Leadership Programme were given a range of lectures, field trips and other learning opportunities organised through Lincoln University's Professional Development Group and Centre for International Development.

The party was led by Vice-Minister Dr Tao-Lin Zhang from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing.

The group heard about educational opportunities at Lincoln University, research and development work, connections with industry and other research organisations, and visited a number of farms and also the Synlait  dairy factory near Rakaia.

Over December-January Lincoln University, through its Professional Development Group, will next host a party of agricultural officials from the city of Wuhan.

There will be 19 in this party and they will attend a month-long training programme.

This is the fourth annual visit from Wuhan agricultural officials.  The purpose of the training programme is to study agricultural development in New Zealand; different systems of agricultural production; current farm management practices; and scientific developments.

The Wuhan visit will be led by the Deputy Director of the Wuhan Agricultural Bureau, Shu Yanfa.

As with the UNDP Xiao Kang tour, the co-ordinator for the Wuhan visit in the Professional Development Group at Lincoln University is Errol Costello.