Project Name：Farmers Training Cooperation Project (Papua New Guinea)

Project status：Completed projects

Cooperating Country：Asia-Pacific, Papua New Guinea

Project Description：The 2050 national development goals announced by the PNG government include seven strategic targets, of which agricultural development is one of the key issues. The objective is to replace a portion of agricultural imports and to develop a semi-commercial agricultural production model able to cope with the expanding domestic market, as well as improve the production skills of local farmers so as to enhance crop quality and increase farmers’ income.

Appraising problems and opportunities in terms of technical assistance to PNG finds that training and agricultural extension systems are disorganized and lack horizontal connections, that there are insufficient numbers of government extension staff to provide local farmers with technical assistance, and that it is difficult to promote agriculture among the public due to cultural and geographical differences. In addition, as smallholders do not feel the need to make technical improvements or plan ahead with production, local agricultural outputs are insufficient and quality is unstable, and both farming and livestock rearing practices are uncompetitive, making it difficult to meet domestic market demand.

The main content of this project will include:

1. Establishing training centers at which to train agricultural extension staff and farmers.
2. Integrating farmer education and promotion with technical consultation services systems.
3. Improving current seed propagation techniques.
4. Conducting evaluation of training effectiveness.

Implementation Start Date：2015-01-01

Implementation End Date：2020-12-31

Project Objectives：1.Establishment of two (2) agricultural training and extension centers:
(1) two agricultural training and extension centers.
(2) 63 core farmers.
(3) training courses for 2,600 farmers.
2.Integration of farmer education and promotion with technical consultation services systems:
(1) 10 sets of standard farmer training materials.
(2) 6 crops production manuals (rice, peanut, sweet potato, sweet corn, watermelon and taro).
(3) 4 sets of farm management manuals.
(4) 18 demonstration farms, and 10 annual meetings.
3.Improvement of current seed propagation techniques:
(1) seed production of major crops.
(2) 1,000 farmers to use certified seed as part of their production activities.
4.Evaluation of training effectiveness:
(1) A training effectiveness report at project completion.

Executing Agency：1.Taiwan Technical Mission in Papua New Guinea
2.Department of Agriculture and Livestock (Papua New Guinea)

Current Progress：1.Establishment of two (2) agricultural training and extension centers:
(1) Completed the building and designed the field of two agricultural training and extension centers.
(2) Selected 63 core farmers.
(3) Conducted 123 training courses for farmers (3,146 armers).
2.Integration of farmer education and promotion with technical consultation services systems:
(1) Completed 10 sets of standard farmer training materials.
(2) Completed 6 crops production manuals (rice, peanut, sweet potato, sweet corn, watermelon and taro).
(3) Completed 4 sets of farm management manuals.
(4) Established 22 demonstration farms, hold 20 field days and hold 10 annual meetings.
3.Improvement of current seed propagation techniques:
(1) Assisted the National Agricultural Research Institute in planting at Bubia farm, including rice over 5.25 hectares, taro over 0.5 hectares and sweet potato over 0.5 hectares for every year.
(2) Encouraged 2,094 farmers to use certified seeds.

Mission：Taiwan Technical Mission in Papua New Guinea