Page 44 - 國合會2016電子書-英文

Interview 2

Similo George Mavimbela, Chief Research Officer, Head of the
Department of Agricultural Research and Specialists Services (DARSS)

Clear objectives and good use of technology set apart
TaiwanICDF projects

Potato is one of Swaziland’s Sharing Taiwan’s experience in Mavimbela was amazed that the
staple foods, but, for quite some seedling production, helping to project established a revolving fund
time, owing to a lack of healthy establish a seed potato supply so that small farmers who often have
seed potato supply and no seed chain limited capital would have access in
quality inspection unit, most To establish clear objectives, the future to funds they could use.
farmers have retained their own during the period of cooperation, As for cooperation so far, Mr.
seed potatoes or relied on the many surveys and analyses were Mavimbela firmly believes that
imports from South Africa. Not conducted to find the key to raise the TaiwanICDF’s use of Taiwan’s
only is the quality of seed potato potato production quantity and abundant experience in the
uneven with prices remaining high, quality. Then, with an eye on seed agricultural seedling industry is
the supply is unstable, making potato management, this was helping Swaziland establish a
it impossible for Swaziland to followed by the full deployment of seed potato propagation system
increase its potato production. technology in the field, the laboratory and expand the scope of potato
To address this problem, in and the post-harvesting process, production, as well as providing
2013, Taiwan began to work so that the project frequently made guidance in creation of a seed potato
with the Swaziland Ministry breakthroughs and moved ahead. supply chain. Aside from enabling
of Agriculture to promote the For example, a disease testing lab an increase in potato production in
Seed Potato Production Project. was created, disease symptom Swaziland, in the future, the seed
Implemented over six years, identification was carried out in potato market will be able to expand
the project aims to establish a the field, and seed potato field to other Southern African countries
healthy seed potato propagation production technicians, along with and bring enormous benefits to
system and testing technology field inspection and laboratory improve farmers’ incomes.
and system, gradually reducing testing officers, were trained. This
the number of imported seed not only made it possible to ensure
potatoes, lowering cultivation that seed potatoes were specific
costs for farmers and raising the pathogen free (SPF) and there were
quantity of table potato to meet no worries about the quality, but also
domestic consumer demand. gave Swaziland the ability to test
Similo George Mavimbela, and identify potato diseases and
Chief Research Officer and Head thus provide SPF seed potatoes. In
of the Department of Agricultural addition, with the construction of a
Research and Specialists Services cold storage depot, it was possible to
(DARSS), who participated in this control the potato dormancy length
project from the very beginning so that sprouting would be uniform,
and acted as a communication making it possible to regulate the
bridge between the Swaziland production period. The introduction
Ministry of Agriculture and the of grading equipment enabled
TaiwanICDF, pointed out that farmers to quickly wash and grade
TaiwanICDF projects stand out seed and table potatoes. In the
from the crowd with their clear future, plant tissue culture technology
objectives and good use of will be introduced to create a tissue
technology. propagation system. Moreover, Mr.

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