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Operations
The TaiwanICDF has always sought
to nurture and promote the benefit
of long-term relationships as part of
cooperation and development work with
its partner countries.
Few, however, may have had a
relationship with the TaiwanICDF for as
long as Jean Prosper, a Haitian who
first came to Taiwan on a TaiwanICDF
scholarship in 1998 and who continues
to work with the organization to the
present day.
Jean, a technical coordinator for
Haiti’s Ministry of Agriculture, acts as
senior liaison in the management of
two TaiwanICDF projects currently
under implementation, the Les Cayes
Cereal Crops Development Project and
the Rice Seed Production Capacity
Enhancement Project. Returning to
Taiwan for this year’s TaiwanICDF’s
Workshop on Rice Seed Management,
a two-week program attended by 19
participants from 13 countries, Jean
explains that using quality rice seed to
raise production yields is a big priority.
“Basically, if we want to raise rice
production, we need to raise the
quality of seeds, suited to conditions in
Haiti,” Jean explains. He says that the
overall aim of his current work with the
TaiwanICDF is to be producing enough
high-quality seed to promote seed
production over 100 hectares by 2015
or 2016, and adds that he wants to pass
on the know-how he’s gained during
the workshop to build local farmers’
capacity to produce their own seed.
“We think if we have the possibility to
train them, if we have the possibility to
set up some seed regulation programs,
rules, then when the Taiwanese mission
finishes a particular phase of work, the
farmers will have the possibility to go
on,” he says.
Improving Food Security Through
Local Production
In a sense, Jean’s own career
has tracked the development of the
TaiwanICDF’s work in Haiti, representing
a series of steps designed to support
agricultural development and improve
Haiti’s food security through local
production.
When he first came to Taiwan in 1998,
Jean’s research at National Pingtung
University of Science and Technology
(NPUST) in the far south of Taiwan
focused on improving rice yields with
fertilizer inputs. He put this knowledge
to use after graduating in 2000, when
his Ministry of Agriculture placed him
at the Taiwan Technical Mission in Haiti.
Working with the mission for about
seven years, mainly in Artibonite, Jean
recalls that work there also moved on
to incorporate mechanization, irrigation
and water management.
Jean left Haiti from September 2008
to April 2009, but then returned for a
new TaiwanICDF project in Torbeck. He’s
been working with Taiwan again ever
since, and in line with the TaiwanICDF’s
plans, wants to move on to rice
marketing and post-harvest processing,
adding further value to local production.
Looking back to his initial connection
with the TaiwanICDF in 1998, Jean
recalls how quickly it all came together,
saying that when he had not long been
working for the Ministry of Agriculture, he
was shown some application forms for
studying in Taiwan.
“One of my bosses asked me, ‘Do
you want to go to Taiwan?’ and I told
him, ‘Yes.’ Fifteen days from the date I
filled [in] the [form] and I go to Taiwan.”
Jean says that within a week of
graduating, the Ministry of Agriculture
had assigned him to work with the
Taiwanese mission, and from there he
started to get promoted. He says that his
time in Taiwan provided the initial chance
that allowed him to work and to “get a
little money, enough to start a family.”
Now nearly two decades after
Jean originally came to Taiwan, the
TaiwanICDF’s International Higher
Education Scholarship Program
provides scholarships for placements on
33 programs at 21 universities, and has
brought well over a thousand students
to Taiwan over the years.
Back in 1998, however, NPUST’s
master’s program in tropical agriculture
for overseas students really was the
first of its kind in Taiwan – the one that
started everything off – and as part of
that inaugural intake, Jean was one of
very few foreigners around on campus.
Having worked alongside Taiwanese
colleagues in Haiti for many years
now, Jean says that one of the biggest
changes is that his own Chinese has
improved enough to communicate with
people here in the local language —
something he’s more than happy to
demonstrate in a final remark offered
up in a combination of Chinese and
English.
“Xie xie [thank you], Taiwan, for
implementing this workshop!”
Jean Prosper, Technical Coordinator, Ministry of
Agriculture, Haiti
A Long-term Relationship with
The TaiwanICDF Driving Personal,
Professional and Agricultural
Development in Haiti
Interview
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