Project Name：Fruit and Vegetable Demonstration and Extension Project (St. Lucia)

Project status：Completed projects

Cooperating Country：Caribbean, St. Lucia

Project Description：

St. Lucia imports a relatively high volume of agricultural produce, mainly due to advances in the country’s tourist sector. With around a million tourists visiting St. Lucia annually, there is great demand for such produce.

Project appraisal for this project identified a number of reasons for St. Lucia’s low domestic agricultural output: (1) farmers’ crop cultivation and management skills are in need of upgrading; (2) a lack of integrated production and marketing mechanisms; and (3) a lack of high-quality seedlings of good varieties.

In assisting St. Lucia to raise yields of locally produced fruits and vegetables, the main components of this project will include: (1) guiding farmers in the use of simple facilities and the principles of crop cultivation, thereby improving field cultivation and management techniques throughout St. Lucia’s eight extension region; (2) conducting related agricultural training workshops and demonstrations, thereby strengthening capacity building among extension officer and farmers; and (3) by using demonstration as the principle means of promoting extension work, streamlining and promoting the extension of certain key crops.

Specific project work components will include: (1) introducing high-quality varieties for cultivation and demonstration, and drafting cultivation manuals; (2) propagating high-quality fruit tree seedlings for extension to farmers; (3) demonstrating the cultivation of tropical fruits and major vegetables under extension; (4) extending fruit and vegetable cultivation over 140 hectares; (5) establishing three model demonstration plots; (6) organizing 18 training workshops and field training programs; (7) organizing four agriculture production and marketing groups; (8) building six composting demonstration sheds and providing guidance to farmers; (9) organizing four Farmer Field Schools; and (10) building capacity in counterpart St. Lucian units.

Project No：TCD-2011-C06-01

Implementation Start Date：2011-01-01

Implementation End Date：2015-12-31

Source of Funding：Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Project Objectives：

1.Establish three demonstration fields in extension areas and hold four Farmer Field School events; organize four production and marketing groups and provide 18 technical training courses to enhance farmers’ know-how and practices.
2.Provide extension services for selected crops, raising yields over 140 hectares for production worth US$2,008,779.
3.Build six composting facilities and transfer associated skills, assisting farmers to reduce their reliance on chemical fertilizers and develop organic approaches to agriculture.

Executing Agency：

Taiwan Technical Mission in St. Lucia / Extension Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Production, Fisheries and Rural Development (Saint Lucia)

Implementation Arrangement：

The local Taiwan Technical Mission will assist the partner country to implement the project.

Project Performance：

1. The project will provide technical assistance to St. Lucian farmers to raise both output and quality of tropical fruits and vegetables, and to reduce production costs and increase income. This should reduce agricultural imports and foreign exchange expenditure by 10 percent and increase equivalent production by up to US$2,008,779.
2. Providing farming groups with technical assistance for crop production and marketing will be an effective means of increasing farmers’ income and improving the economy in rural areas.
Building compost facilities and transferring associated skills will assist farmers to reduce their reliance on chemical fertilizers and develop organic approaches to agriculture.
3. The project will build capacity among St. Lucian stakeholders, and the project will then be handed over to St. Lucian authorities by the end of 2014.

Mission：Taiwan Techical Mission in Saint Lucia