Project Name：Rice Seeds Production Project in Papua New Guinea

Project status：Projects in Operation

Cooperating Country：Asia-Pacific, Papua New Guinea

Project Description：

Papua New Guinea (PNG) annually imports over 400,000 tons of rice, a staple food in the country. Therefore, the PNG government proposed a policy to increase rice production through agricultural mechanization, which will reduce the pressure on import demand by 85 percent, and established state-owned enterprise Kumul Agricultural Limited (KAL) to implement rice production projects. In the first phase, a total of 200 hectares of rice fields will be set up in Central Province and Morobe Province to produce 2,000 metric tons of certified seeds with two crops per year for 10,000 hectares of rice production in the two provinces. With PNG lacking a rice seed supply system to produce sufficient quality rice seeds, the National Agricultural Research Institute of Papua New Guinea (NARI) and the Taiwan Technical Mission in Papua New Guinea jointly proposed this project, aiming to set up rice seed propagation centers in Port Moresby and Lae to produce foundation rice seeds to meet KAL's needs. In addition, this project builds the ability of NARI to propagate, preserve and identify varieties of rice seeds for the development of 20,000 hectares of rice cultivation. The main goals of this project are to: 1. Produce 75 tons of foundation rice seeds. 2. Establish a production system of qualified rice seeds. 3. Set up a certified seed demonstration plot with NARI and KAL.

Project No：TT-310-2021-026

Region：Asia-Pacific

Implementation Start Date：2021-01-01

Implementation End Date：2025-06-30

Project Objectives：

1. Produce 80 tons of foundation rice seeds:

• Produce 42.5 metric tons of rice seeds in Bubia (north region) and 37.5 metric tons of rice seeds in Laloki (south region).
• Assist NARI in establishing two rice seed propagation centers in Laloki and Bubia.
• Establish two rice seed storage rooms.
• Train four NARI rice production technicians (two each in the south and north region).
• Create one technical manual for the management of rice cultivation and production.

2. Establish a production system of qualified rice seeds:

• Assist NARI in establishing two rice seed laboratories (one each in the south and north region).
• Create one technical manual for the identification of rice seed agronomic characteristics.
• Train six officers in rice seed inspection and field inspection (three each in the south and north region).
• Coordinate 14 workshops (three workshops per year plus two expert workshops with Taiwanese experts) on rice seed production, inspection, and certification procedures.

3. Set up a certified seed demonstration plot with NARI and KAL:

• Assist NARI and KAL in setting up a demonstration plot (one ha) in Wawin.
• Assist NARI and KAL in setting up a rice seed inspection laboratory.
• Coordinate a total of six workshops in rice seed production and inspection.
• Build capabilities of one technical management staff and four technical field staff.

Executing Agency：

Taiwan Technical Mission in Papua New Guinea / Department of Agriculture and Livestock / National Agricultural Research Institute 

Current Progress：

As of March 2025, the key achievements of this project include:

1. Producing a total of 87.584 metric tons of rice seeds.

2. Assisting partner organization NARI in establishing two rice seed propagation centers, one in the northern region and one in the southern region.

3. Establishing two rice seed laboratories, one in the northern region and one in the southern region.

4. Building two ambient-temperature and two cold-storage rice seed warehouses.

5. Training one field inspection manager and six inspectors.

6. Conducting two expert training workshop, eight rice seed inspection and field check seminar in both the northern and southern regions, and four rice seed cultivation management workshops in each region.

7. Assisting partner organization NARI in establishing TSC-10 rice seed agronomic trait identification technology and creating the corresponding technical manual.

Project Contact：Ms. Li-Ting Chao

Phone：886-2-2888-6127

E-mail：l.t.chao@icdf.org.tw

Mission：Taiwan Technical Mission in Papua New Guinea