Project Name：Horticulture crops development Project (Bahrain)

Project status：Completed projects

Cooperating Country：Middle East, Bahrain

Project Description：  Bahrain is a small country in the Persian Gulf. Income is high, as are living standards. The Bahraini government has begun to pay significant attention to the issue of food security in response to the impact that the greenhouse effect and global warming are having upon the climate. At the same time, the government has also been encouraging the development of the local flower industry and improvements to relevant cultivation techniques. As such, the Taiwanese government has assigned three consultants to implement three sub-projects focusing on (i) food security and flowering plant development; (ii) date palm and orchid tissue culture propagation techniques; and (iii) orchid cultivation demonstration and ornamental plant production.

Implementation Start Date：2015-01-01

Implementation End Date：2017-12-31

Project Objectives：

1. Cultivate 60,000-80,000 seedlings of crops of agronomic and horticultural value and demonstrate and promote crop cultivation models, with the purpose of producing 1,000 tons of fruits and vegetables over 36 hectares.
2. Conduct micro-propagation experiments of date palm seedlings; establish orchid micro-propagation procedure and maintain 300 explants, including different cultural stages, for demonstration in the lab; train 2-5 Bahraini technicians to work independently per year.
3. Demonstrate the cultivation of 20,000 Phalaenopsis seedlings; provide consultation on cultivation technology with the purpose of helping Bahrain to become a center for Phalaenopsis production in the Middle East.
4. Produce 50,000-80,000 bedding flowers, 8,000 potted flowers, 6,000 foliage plants and 400 fruit tree seedlings; increase the variety of fruits available in Bahrain by promoting the planting of tropical fruits.
   

Executing Agency：

1. Taiwan Technical Mission in the Kingdom of Bahrain
2. Ministry of Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning (Kingdom of Bahrain)
   

Current Progress：To the end of December 2017, the following activities have been completed:
2015:
1. Produced 6,230 vegetable seedlings and 1,400 papaya plantlets; gave cultural advice and help local farmers to produce 160 tons of fruits and vegetables over 6 hectares.
2. Completed the demonstration trials of tomato (varieties: Ajyad 7 and Ajyad 16 ) and oriental leafy vegetable ( varieties: San-Feng No.2 and Ching-Chiang ).
3. Produced 7,150 bedding plants and pot flowers; assisted 5 farmers in producing 2.65 million flowering plants. Held a bedding plant workshop.
4. Demonstrated cultivation of 3,150 orchid plants and 4,500 ornamental plants, held 2 workshops for orchid cultivation.
5. Sub-cultured 420 date palm somatic embryos and plantlets in vitro, and 130 callus tissue specimens in vitro.
6. Establishment of Phalaenopsis meristem-propagation technique, and sub-cultured about 400 plantlets in multiplication and rooting stage for demonstration.
2016:
1. Produced 8,000 vegetable seedlings; gave cultural advice and help local farmers to produce 160 tons of fruits and vegetables over 6 hectares.
2. Completed the demonstration trials of cabbage “Green Autumn”, sweet corn “Bright Jean” and “Yellow and White”, cherry tomato “ELF”, sweet melon “Autumn Waltz No.2, Sky Rocket and Splendid” etc.
3. Produced 7,800 bedding plants and pot flowers; assisted four farmers in producing 250 million flowering plants.
4. Demonstrated cultivation of 3,466orchid plants and 4,600 ornamental plants, held 1 workshops for orchid and date palm tissue culture and cultivation.
5. Completed Bahrain five main varieties of date palm tissue culture procedure, produced 2,020 test tubes of tissue culture plantlets, and transplanted 800 plantlets in greenhouse for trial.
6. Establishment of Phalaenopsis meristem-propagation technique, and sub-cultured about 150 plantlets in multiplication and rooting stage for demonstration.
2017
1. Completed 3 basic cultural materials for trainees of incubator center.
2. Edit a tomato cultivation manual.
3. Design environmental control, irrigation system, hygiene operation, nutrient and medium checkpoints of greenhouse environmental control system.
4. Completed 3 times of cultural training course for trainees of incubator center.
5. Completed the demonstration trials of cherry tomato (varieties: Rosada, Golden Gem and Sugary) and sweet melon (varieties: Red Queen, Sky Rocket, Autumn Favor, Splendid, Autumn Sweet and Angel).
6. Hold 1 cherry tomato workshop and 1 sweet melon workshop. Assist farmers to grow 5,600 tomato plants and 5,820 melon plants.
7. Cooperating with extension division to visit local farmers for 50 times and establishing cultural management knowledge database.
8. Hold 2 orchid cultivation workshops.
9. Assist the Ministry to display the orchid in farmers market.
10. Assisted a farmer to grow 1,332 pots of orchid.
11. Establish 1 operation manual for media preparation of date palm.
12. Sterilized and initiated 8 Khalas offshoots and 2 Khonazi date palm offshoot.
13. Sub-cultured 2,000 test tubes of date palm in rooting stage.
14. Transferred 1,200 tissue culture plantlets of date palm
15. Initiate 180 test tubes of bud in initiation stage.

Project Contact：Chen, Chao-Yeh

Phone：886-2-287323237 Ext.217

E-mail：C.Y.CHEN@icdf.org.tw

Projected Benefits：

1. Increase famers’ revenue by enhancing the quality and production of horticultural crops.
2. Promote the cultivation of orchids and foliage plants, and provide technical consultation.
3. Assist in establishing date palm micro-propagation procedures, with 10,000 seedlings per year produced independently following the transfer of associated tissue culture technologies.
4. Use bedding flowers, potted flowers and foliage plants to beautify the grounds of the Ministry of Agriculture or as gifts.