Project Name：Date Palm Cultivation and Tissue Culture Consultant Dispatch Project (Saudi Arabia)

Project status：Projects in Operation

Cooperating Country：Saudi Arabia

Project Description：

The Republic of China dispatches consultants to the resident Taiwan Technical Mission to carry out agricultural technical assistance with Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the Agreement of Agricultural Cooperation between the Republic of China Government Represented by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabian Government. The main tasks of the technical consultants of Taiwan Technical Mission include: 1. To investigate the annual needs of Saudi Arabia and to formulate an annual working plan; 2. To provide regular reports; 3. To provide consultancy services according to the implementation priorities. This project focuses on date palm tissue culture and cultivation technique development.

Project Objectives：

Assist Saudi Arabia in developing date palm tissue culture techniques and red weevil control techniques to improve the quality and yield of date palm.

Executing Agency：

 Taiwan Technical Mission in the Kingdom of Saudi / Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Current Progress：

To the December, the following activities have been completed in 2024:

1.   The date palm special varieties (White-Najizanand and Yellow-Najizan) by inflorescence somatic embryos produced 3,000 of in vitro and greenhouse acclimatization.

2.   The precious and rare varieties date palm somatic embryos produced of in vitro and provided local farmers with total of 20.25 hectares of planting.

3.  Help promote the diversified of agriculture and provide the Ministry of Agriculture and other research centers with 41,800 blackberry, 24,500 strawberry and 4,000 rose tissue culture plants .

4.     The establishment of date palm and potatoes germplasm activities and training for staff of tissue culture.

Project Contact：Chen, Chao-Yeh

Phone：+886-2-2873-2323 Ext.6053

E-mail：c.y.chen@icdf.org.tw

Status：Projects under implementation

Projected Benefits：

1. Date palm micro-propagation for special varieties by inflorescence.
2. Rare and precious varieties of date palm micro-propagation.
3. Date palm germplasm conservation.
4. Training for staff of tissue culture laboratory.

Cooperating Stakeholders：Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Mission：Taiwan Technical Mission in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia