On April 29th, Jin Weiwei, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of our university, led a team to Urumqi, Xinjiang. They met with representatives from Tashkent University of Chemical Technology Yangil Branch, Higher Vocational Education Institution Material and Technical Foundation Center, and Tashkent University of Architecture and Civil Engineering in Uzbekistan, and signed the "Cooperation Agreement on Establishing Shennong Institution".

Jin Weiwei had cordial talks with Zafar Kakimov, President of Yangil Branch of Tashkent University of Chemical Technology, Carol Khedirov, Director of Material and Technical Foundation Center of Higher Vocational Education Institutions, and Bakhrom Turaganov, President of Tashkent University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, and had in-depth exchanges on the cooperation majors and intentions of their respective schools. Jin Weiwei introduced our school's educational characteristics and advantageous disciplines that closely follow regional economic and social development and serve modern urban agriculture to our partners in Uzbekistan. He particularly mentioned that our school focuses on the construction of disciplinary innovation platforms, adheres to the promotion of teaching through scientific research, and continuously improves its academic level. In the future, we look forward to practical cooperation with Uzbekistan's partners in various fields such as scientific research cooperation and teacher training.

Uzbekistan schools will recruit students locally under the brand program of "Shennong Institution". Students can study at our school through "2+2" or "3+1" programs and short-term learning. The participants agreed to jointly carry out cooperation in running schools at the undergraduate level in such specialties as horticulture, facility agricultural science and engineering, environmental design, hydrology and water resources engineering, and jointly cultivate talents with profound scientific literacy, solid professional knowledge, broad international vision, and strong sense of innovation to serve the agricultural development of Uzbekistan and the construction of the "the Belt and Road".

The "Shennong Institution" cooperation project is the first international student joint training program initiated by our school. Its name is derived from the ancestor of ancient Chinese agricultural civilization, Shennong Shi, also known as Emperor Yan, reflecting the original intention of Sino foreign cooperation in talent cultivation to serve agricultural development. Since 2024, our school has held multiple discussions with Uzbekistan's partner schools on cooperation matters regarding the "Shennong Institution" through on-site inspections, online work meetings, and other forms. The signing of a cooperation agreement with relevant universities in Uzbekistan this time is an important achievement of our school's continuous promotion of the "Shennong Institution" brand project, and also reflects the school's achievements in international student training in recent years. As the only agricultural university in Tianjin, our school will continue to actively leverage its educational characteristics in serving modern urban agriculture, and continue to promote exchanges and cooperation with universities in Shanghai Cooperation Organization member countries, as well as the implementation of project results, to contribute to the internationalization of agriculture. (From the International Office; Text: Liu Xuemeng; Editor: Huang Baoxia; Reviewer: Tian Jian and Zhao Bin)