From June 24 to 26, the seed potato training program was jointly held in Lijiang by the Small Farmers Adapting to Global Markets (SFAGM) project and the High Quality Agri-produce Development and Service Center of the Ministry of Agriculture. The Yunnan Agriculture Department and Lijiang Agriculture Bureau offered great support to the event. There were over 200 trainees coming from Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Chongqing, Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, Guangxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi and Hebei, among whom the majority was from the western and central areas of China.

Lijiang in Yunnan is an important potato production base in Yunnan province. In Lijiang, potato is of great significance to serve as food, brings more income and ensures food security to local people. That is why SFAGM and the High Quality Agri-produce Development and Service Center of the Ministry of Agriculture held the training program in Lijiang. Activities related to the potato supply chain include the seed potato training in Wuchuan County in Inner Mongolia. SFAGM has a lot to offer in terms of experience in potato supply chain management, high quality seed potato production, food safety guarantee for potato production, and potato brand promotion. In order to disseminate SFAGM experience in potato supply chain and help farmers get adapted to both the domestic and international markets after the WTO accession, SFAGM help the training program.

During the training program, SFAGM made presentations on the project activities concerning potato production, the successful results and the impact on small farmers. The Wuchuan Agriculture Bureau talked about how SFAGM activities could be used to engage local small famers in modern markets and increase their income.

Mr. Wang Xigui, a small farmer representative with Yongfeng Seed Potato Association in Wuchuan County shared his experience in how SFAGM helped local small farmers establish professional economic cooperation organizations through which small farmers could enhance their bargaining power and increase their income. After sharing experience of SFAGM, over 20 experts and scholars in the potato sector gave lectures in various topics of seed potato. During the training, the trainees and experts visited the potato tissue culturing lab and the seed potato production base in Lijiang to learn about local potato production level and draw upon local seed potato production experience.

At the invitation of the training class, Kevin Chen, project manager of SFAGM shared his knowledge in how SFAGM was implemented in China and what achievements hade been made during the implementation.