Action Plan for the Silkroad Agricultural Education and Research Innovation Alliance (2021-2025)

      The Silkroad Agricultural Education and Research Innovation Alliance (hereinafter referred to as “SAERIA”), by upholding the spirit that the Silk Road bears, namely, peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning, mutual benefits and win-win reciprocity, agreed on the following action plan through communication and consultation among allied members.

1. Develop Personnel Training and Share Educational Resource

1.1. Continue to increase the number of exchange students among the allied members and improve the quality of talent training. Relying on different kinds of scholarship programmers, and on the basis of previous action plan, continue to expand the scale of international students among member countries; amend the agreements on programs involving student training, student exchanges and other activities and encourage more members to sign such agreements; explore the possibility of mutual recognition of academic credits and joint degrees; and jointly develop curricula for students in agriculture fields.

1.2. Strengthen technical and vocational training. Allied members, aiming at the demand for talents from the leading agricultural industries of member countries, are encouraged to make most of their technology and training facilities to teach professional farmers and technical personnel among member countries.

1.3. Develop joint running educational programs. Allied members are encouraged to strengthen cooperation by developing joint-running educational programs supported by universities, research institutes and enterprises.

2. Enhance Research Collaboration and Technology Extension

2.1. Expand channels and improve platforms for the agricultural academic cooperation and exchange among countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. In response to the opportunities and challenges faced by the agricultural sectors of various countries in the post-epidemic era, the alliance’s international cooperation and exchange resources should be extensively exploited to open up more channels for agricultural science and technology exchange. Various academic events including Agricultural Education and Research Forums, University President Forums, etc. should be held regularly to perfect the platform for academic exchange.

2.2. Zoom in on the focus areas of global agriculture in the post-epidemic era and carry out collaborative research in such areas. In the post-epidemic era, to address the key scientific and technical issues faced by alliance countries in the fields of food security, resources and environment, and smart agriculture, the alliance should innovate the cooperation mechanism and build a multi-channel cooperative research platform; explore the possibility of establishing research centers for agricultural information sharing, sustainable development of agricultural environment, agricultural water saving, smart agriculture and food safety, etc. among countries participating the Belt and Road Initiative; collaborative research should be conducted in the key areas of arid area agriculture, food security, healthy breeding, global climate change and response, ecological environment construction, water-saving agriculture, smart agriculture, agricultural culture.

2.3. Promote technology extension based on the local agriculture demand. With the help of modern information technology, we will establish a virtual demonstration platform for the promotion of agricultural technology at the national level among the alliance countries. Focusing on the agricultural development needs of countries (regions) along the Silk Road, we should give full play to the advantages of member countries, encouraging members to incorporate advanced technologies of their own into the information database, and provide remote agricultural technology services with the help of modern information. Eventually, technology transfer as well as extension will be boosted, the purpose of the transnational promotion and demonstration of advanced technologies will be achieved, and the alliance will become an excellent model of global agricultural technology extension.

3. Deepen People-to-People Exchanges and Friendship

      3.1. Establish an online communication platform between alliance members and open up multiple communication channels. To mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the alliance, we shall establish an online communication platform to tackle the challenge of insufficient in-person communication posed by the pandemic, and the platform will render the communication more effective among alliance members regardless of different time zones and geographical locations. Allied members, based on cooperation intentions, are encouraged to create their own diversified unique communication platforms such as sub-alliance under the framework of the SAERIA. They shall also use the website of Alliance to communicate when the General Assembly of Members is not in session.

      3.2. Carry out a series of friendly exchange events. Allied members are encouraged, by making use of the alliance mechanism, to organize knowledge contests, cultural experience events, sports activities, culture and art festivals, etc. to promote mutual understanding.

       3.3. Facilitate the establishment of Silk Road Civilization Exchange Center. To meet the need for collaborative research on cultural communication in the fields of culture, education, technology and ecological progress etc. along the Silkroad countries among alliance members, we shall take advantage of the talent and the leading disciplines in the alliance countries to encourage the establishment of Silk Road civilization center and promote the people-to-people exchange along the Silkroad countries.