The National Training Workshop on Forage Grass Management, a 3-day workshop jointly sponsored by the Grassland Monitoring and Supervision Center, Ministry of Agriculture and China-Canada Sustainable Agriculture Development Project (Phase II) was successfully ended in Hailar on August 31, 2007. The participants of this training, 66 persons in total, all came from the six project provinces. Mr. Zhang Xiwu, director from the Grassland Monitoring and Supervision Center, Mr. Liu Yingjun, a division director from Inner Mongolia Provincial Department of Agriculture & Animal Husbandry, Mr. Liu Yongli, director from Inner Mongolia Grassland Supervision and Management Bureau, and Mr. Brant Kirychuk, Manager of SADP Project Beijing, delivered speeches at the opening ceremony of the training workshop.

The participants of this training mostly came from grassland monitoring and supervision stations and provincial functional departments in charge of grassland supervision and management in the project provinces of Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Xinjiang, Sichuan, Hunan and Hubei.

In order for the trainees to better understand Canada’s relevant knowledge and technology, we designed the training program as two days for classroom lectures and one day for field visit. Meanwhile, we invited four Canadian experts, including Mr. Brant Kirychuk, the project manager, Dr. Jeff Thorpe, Dr. Zoheir Abouguendia and Canadian long-term consultant stationed in Hailar Mr. Bazil Fritz. The experts prepared the following training contents:
    1.  Simple methods for grassland health evaluation
    2.  Grassland monitoring and the use of stocking rate on the rangeland
    3.  Nutrition for ruminants
    4.  Practical methods for grassland management and grazing system

Also, there were four experts on the Chinese side: Prof. Mao Peisheng from China Agriculture University, Mr. Yang Falin, an engineer from Grassland Work Station of Ningxia Provincial Department of Agriculture & Animal Husbandry, Mr. Huang Guo’an, vice-president of Inner Mongolia Institute of Grassland Survey & Design, and Ms. Gaowa, a senior engineer. They introduced China’s relevant policies in such areas as grassland project management and technical application.

At the training workshop, the trainees were active to ask questions and exchange experience with national and international experts, so expected goals of the training workshop were achieved.