The “Training Course on Biogas and Recycling Agricultural Technology for the Philippines”, which is sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and organized by the Biogas Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (BIOMA), opened online recently. More than 200 government officials, technicians and researchers from the Philippines biogas and recycling agriculture technology promotion and management attended the opening ceremony.

As an important support force for China’s agricultural technology to go abroad, BIOMA has extensively carried out over the past 40 years foreign aid trainings on biogas technology, agricultural resource and etc. Relying platforms such as Asia-Pacific Biogas Research and Training Center, the Biogas Technology Research and Training Reference Center of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), China-Africa Joint Center for Modern Agro technology Exchange, Demonstration and Training (Sichuan) and other important international cooperation platforms, BIOMA has built an important window for external exhibition, exchanges and cooperation. Since the outbreak of COVID 19, BIOMA has taken the initiative to adapt to changes, optimize curriculums, improve teaching contents, and organized 22 online foreign aid training courses sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce, and provided trainings for nearly 1,000 participants from 36 developing countries in Africa, America and Asia.

“Training Course on Biogas and Recycling Agricultural Technology for the Philippines " is an epitome of the international cooperation and foreign aid training that BIOMA has vigorously carried out over the years. The course focuses on the current multiple threats such as global energy shortage, climate change and food crisis, and integrates the needs for China's biogas industry to develop market and the needs for the Philippines to develop agriculture and rural areas. It conducts knowledge sharing and capacity building in biogas industry under the frameworks of South-South cooperation and tripartite cooperation. This foreign aid training is a vivid practice of implementing the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the initiative of building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Thanks to BIOMA’s advanced planning, active promotion and the cooperation of all participants, this training presents the characteristics of three "many", compared with the traditional in-person teaching and previous virtual training. First, many participants. The number of participants in this training has set a historical record. It has the largest number of participants among the online foreign aid training programs sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and organized by BIOMA. Second, there are many cooperation partners. This training carries out close cooperation with the Center for South-South Cooperation of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Philippine Bureau of Livestock and Poultry (DA-BAI), the Agricultural and Fisheries Engineering Bureau of the Philippine Ministry of Agriculture (DA-BAFE), the Renewable Energy Administration of the Philippine Ministry of Energy, and representatives from Philippine enterprises, which makes it difficult to organize and coordinate. But the influence is greatly increased. Third, there are many teaching forms, which include both online and onsite teaching, lectures and operation instructions. The Philippine National Pig Breeding Center is selected as the centralized training site for operation instruction, and the participants are organized to live and board. BIOMA professors and Chinese enterprises are also invited to provide online technical guidance and on-site installation demonstration.

It is believed that with the strong support of China Centre for South-South Cooperation of UNIDO, and the strong cooperation of the Philippine Bureau of Livestock and Poultry and other parties, the Training Course on Biogas and Recycling Agricultural Technology for the Philippines will be a great success, the in-depth cooperation between China and the Philippines in the field of rural energy and livestock and poultry production will be promoted, and another example of good practices in South-South Cooperation and tripartite cooperation will be created.