Faculty members of South China Agricultural University’s College of Economics and Management visit Baton Rouge to meet with LSU AgCenter officials about a 2+2 degree program that is in the works. From left: Krishna Paudel, AgCenter economist; Ying Tan, professor in SCAU’s College of Economics and Management; Xianwei Cao, principal director of the SCAU college; Bill Richardson, LSU vice president for agriculture and dean of the College of Agriculture; Xiaowei Wen, associate dean of the SCAU college; David Picha, director of AgCenter International Programs; and Fengbo Chen, assistant dean of the SCAU college. Photo by Olivia McClure/LSU AgCenter

LSU Vice President for Agriculture Bill Richardson, center, tells visiting professors from South China Agricultural University about his visit to China about 20 years ago after presenting gifts of rice grown at the AgCenter H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station in Crowley. Xianwei Cao, left, is principal director of SCAU’s College of Economics and Management, and Fengbo Chen, right, is assistant dean. Photo by Olivia McClure/LSU AgCenter

Ying Tan, center, talks about research at South China Agricultural University during Global Agriculture Hour on Jan. 28 in Efferson Hall on the LSU AgCenter campus in Baton Rouge. Two of Tan’s colleagues, Xianwei Cao and Fengbo Chen, are seated at right. Photo by Olivia McClure/LSU AgCenter

(01/29/16) BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU AgCenter and the LSU College of Agriculture are working with a Chinese university to set up a collaborative undergraduate degree program in agricultural economics and to expand exchange programs.

Faculty members of South China Agricultural University’s College of Economics and Management visited LSU on Jan. 28 and 29 to meet with AgCenter officials about the program, which could launch as early as the next academic year.

The program is planned to follow a “2+2” format, meaning students at the Chinese university would begin work towards a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics in China and finish it at LSU.

Once that program is in place, others in various agriculture disciplines could follow, said David Picha, director of AgCenter International Programs.

“A lot of universities throughout the United States have these 2+2 programs, and we feel it will not only benefit our students and faculty at the university, but also the people of Louisiana,” Picha said, adding that it is important for students and faculty to learn about the agriculture industries and cultures of other countries.

The AgCenter has worked in the past with Chinese groups, mostly in rice and forestry, said Bill Richardson, LSU vice president for agriculture and dean of the College of Agriculture. Those two commodities are economically and culturally important to both Louisiana and China.

“There’s so much we have in common there with rice, forestry and some other things agriculturally, but what we really have in common is the interest in exchanges with students and faculty,” Richardson said.

South China Agricultural University is located in Guangzhou, a city of about 27 million people and home to one of the largest ports in the world.

“Much of the grain that’s produced here in the United States and exported through Louisiana ports is distributed through the Guangzhou port,” Picha said.

The Chinese faculty members had a chance to tell about their university and research efforts on Jan. 28 at Global Agriculture Hour, an event hosted by AgCenter International Programs.

South China Agricultural University was founded in 1909 in Canton, which is now called Guangzhou, said Ying Tan, an assistant dean of SCAU’s College of Economics and Management who previously was a visiting scholar in the AgCenter Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness. The university has 43,000 students – including more than 100 international students – and 2,900 faculty and staff.

Researchers in Tan’s college work in disciplines including agriculture and forestry economics, business administration, marketing and accounting. The college also conducts programs targeted at agriculture professionals in topics including rural development, fertilizer application, crop diseases, pest control and sericulture, or silk production.

Picha said he’s hopeful the joint degree program will encourage more short-term faculty and student exchanges between the two universities, which signed a memorandum of understanding for research collaboration in January 2015.

A group of LSU College of Agriculture students will visit South China Agricultural University as part of a study abroad program this summer. And later this year, three Chinese professors and a student will spend time in Louisiana working on research projects with AgCenter faculty.