Hulunbeier Prefecture with its vast and endless grasslands of Inner Mongolia: its vast blue sky and white clouds, brilliant rainbows after a rain shower and fresh green fields full of aromatic grass was the site of the most recent LHESP training activity.

From July 23 to 26, 2009, the LHESP project held the animal disease prevention and policy communication workshop at the Farmers’ Technical Training Center in Molidawa, Autonomous Banner of Hulunbeier, Inner Mongolia. The "Birthplace of China's Hockey", Molidawa is located in the most eastern part of Inner Mongolia. Hulunbeier is one of three ethnic minorities in Inner Mongolia and consists of 220 villages in 17 townships with total population of 310,000. Molidawa is a center of agricultural production and has a good foundation of livestock production. Its soybean production ranks first at the county level nationwide and it is known as the "town of soybeans".

The IMAR Provincial Department of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, the Hulunbeier Prefecture Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau and the Molidawa Banner government attached great importance to this training activity. Mr.Wang Jian, secretary of the party committee of IMAR Agri-department, Ms. EJin Ling, Molidawa Governor, and Li Baogen, LHESP BPO Assistant Manager spoke at the opening ceremony. Li introduced the purpose and objectives of the project and its implementation. In particular, he expressed thanks to the Ministry of Agriculture, the Foreign Economic Center (Mr. Zhou Qijiang, deputy director of FECC and the Chinese manager Ms Wang Yehong), the IMAR and Hulunbeier Agri-departments (Wang Jian, IMAR project manager Ms Zhang Jie, Qing Geertu and Ms Zhang Xiumei) and the local government (E-Jin Ling banners, etc.) and the leaders of the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau (Zheng Guojun, Li WenYu and Ding Changji) for their strong support and assistance. In his speech, he specifically pointed out that the Dawuer people living in beautiful Molidawa, together with other ethnic minorities, have contributed a long history of heroic figures to our great family of the Chinese nation. He spoke about the Canadian animal health project and the goals to promote, through technical assistance, demonstration and training activities, the introduction of appropriate advanced technology fitting our national conditions for the development of animal husbandry and for human and animal health especially for less developed regions and ethnic minority farmers and herders.

Since the beginning of the LHESP project, this is the first training to be organized in Molidawa banner in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and it is also the first time the IMAR training activities have included farmers and grass-root veterinarians. The participants included a total of 66 local trainees plus an inter-provincial exchange team of MTOT trainers from Jilin headed by Mr. Liu Guiqiu, Deputy Director of Yanbian AHB. Of the total participants there were 22 women, and 16 participants from minority groups.

Dr. Dennis Will, Senior veterinarian, Dr. Les Kumor, Canadian Embassy Counselor and Dr. Paul Schneider, LTTA for Jilin were the key Canadian speakers together with the key Chinese presenters, Professor Chen Xiangqian from the Oriental Animal Health Law Research Institute and Professor Du Yanan from the IMAR Agriculture University. The main topics and presentations from the Canadians included an Animal Health Overview of Canada, Canadian Farm Bio-security, Farm Health Management, Brucellosis, Tuberculosis and other disease prevention and control programs. The Chinese experts in the seminar introduced supporting regulations, policy and by-laws regarding vaccination, animal identification and traceability systems. Mr. Zhang Kui from Animal Disease Control Center of Yanbian, Jilin, introduced the Yanbian DFZ program, the lessons and experience of MTOT training and some of the Disease Prevention and Control initiatives since the project implementation. All teaching materials were carefully prepared by the teachers, and the discussions between teachers and students were very impressive, especially since it was the first time for most of the participants to attend a training given by senior Canadian and Chinese experts. The participants not only concentrated on the lectures, but also participated in the discussions actively and asked questions until they fully understood the subject matter. The students realized that Canada has done a great job in animal disease control and recognized important gaps when compared with China's disease prevention and control such as: The existence and implementation of policies and regulations and the successful implementation of extension services to farmers. China needs to start their programs in a step by step approach for the development of better animal husbandry and food safety.

Eight five (85) % of trainees submitted the evaluation form. Ninety six (96) % of participants rated the training as satisfactory or extremely satisfactory. The main comments and suggestions were: Increase the number of trainings; Show more real examples; and Arrange hands-on skill training. Most trainees expressed their willingness to take what they have learned to other farmers or to do more and better technical extension.