Sharing the fruits of China's knowledge

Apart from training and exchange programs in Hainan, Chinese tropical agriculture scientists and researchers have offered assistance overseas that has been warmly welcomed. "Wherever we go, we carefully find the problems and offer our best solutions. Instead of giving fish to the local people, we teach them how to fish," Liu said.

Liu, who has just wound up a trip to Panama, said 10 agricultural scientists from Hainan spent 42 days in the country, inspecting farms and giving local researchers, technicians and farmers on-the-spot training and guidance.

In April, seven months after El Salvador established diplomatic relations with China, Liu led a team of Chinese experts to conduct investigations into the country's agricultural resources. The Chinese experts outlined medium-and long-term development programs for El Salvador's tropical agricultural industry.

Over the past 10 years, more than 50 agricultural experts have been sent to locations around the world as varied as the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific region and Central Africa to help guarantee local food security, according to a report from CATAS.

The transfers of technologies on tropical farming have generated major changes in the agricultural sectors of the countries and were commended as a model for sustainable cooperation by Jose Graziano da Silva, former director-general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.

The Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center in the Republic of Congo, built in 2011 with Chinese government grants, has played a major role in upgrading local farming and introducing new crops.

Output of cassava, a staple food in the Republic of Congo, has jumped from 9 metric tons per hectare to 51 tons in eight years. "With seedlings provided from the center, monthly income of local farmers increased by more than 1,000 yuan ($140), which is 1.5 times their former monthly income," said You Wen, who stayed in the country for more than two years to provide training support to the local farmers.