To actively promote the EU SWITCH-Asia SAFE project and comprehensively enhance the systematic and standardized output capacity of Chinese agricultural products, the China Chain Store and Franchise Association (CCFA), IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, and the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IAED), in collaboration with the Lankao County Supply and Marketing Cooperative, successfully held the "Preparatory Meeting for Sustainable Agricultural Production and Agricultural Planting Technology Training and Pilot Research" on December 25, 2023, at the Lankao County Supply and Marketing Cooperative (North Conference Room, 4th Floor, Lankao County E-commerce (Taobao) Building).

Lankao County comprises 13 towns, 3 streets, and 463 administrative villages (communities), boasting rich agricultural resources, including six major agricultural production bases: wheat, corn, rice, peanuts, cotton, and vegetables. The county places high importance on farmer capability training. As part of the EU "Switch-Asia" Sustainable Production and Consumption Promotion Project, the China Chain Store and Franchise Association, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, and the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences have jointly developed and provided agricultural product quality and food safety training courses. These courses aim to further assist Lankao County in improving agricultural product quality standards, strengthening food safety measures, and promoting sustainable distribution and marketing of agricultural products.

The training featured distinguished experts, including Dr. Zhou Hui, Associate Researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Zhao Minshan, Senior Agronomist and Green Rong Agricultural Technology Training Instructor from Shanxi Agricultural University; and Xu Haitao from the Lankao County Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau. The experts delivered specialized training sessions on "Food Safety Management at the Production Base, Product Quality Safety Assurance and Key Points of Sustainable Management," "An Important Path to Increasing Farmers' Income—Reducing Fertilizer Use and Increasing Efficiency," and "High-Quality Development to Cultivate Farmers' Cooperatives." These sessions aimed to enhance the planting technology level of new agricultural business entities, large-scale growers, and farmers in Lankao County, and to raise their awareness of agricultural product quality and safety.

Participants in this training mainly included village chiefs, cooperative heads, large-scale growers, and farmers from the Lankao County Supply and Marketing Cooperative and other towns and village cooperatives. Nearly thirty cooperatives and almost one hundred farmers attended the training on the day.