Project Name：Horticulture Extension Project (Palau)

Project status：Completed projects

Cooperating Country：Asia-Pacific, Palau

Project Description：

Palau is an island country and highly reliant on imports for daily necessities. In recent years, due to the impact of global warming, rising petroleum prices and high food prices, food security has become one of the most important issues of the government. In addition, a shift in diet away from locally sourced root crops to a Western diet has contributed to malnutrition and widespread obesity, cardiovascular and kidney diseases, diabetes, and cancer among the population of Palau. The president of Palau has made it a national priority to reduce the prevalence of obesity in the country. Therefore, the goal of this project is to support the Palauan government’s national policies and strategies regarding food security and balanced nutrition. In addition, in order to increase income of farmers, the project will research and develop related fruit and vegetable processed products. Overall, the project will: (1) Produce a total of 10 tons of vegetables and fruits, expand production area (over seven hectares), and assist farmers to be able to produce 20 tons of vegetables and fruits. (2) Assist Bureau of Agriculture to be able to produce a total of 80,000 taro seedlings. (3) Promote home gardens and establish school gardens for vegetable and fruit production. (4) Promote composting technology and reduce the use of chemical fertilizers. (5) Trial and test 10 kinds of fruit and vegetable processed products. (6) Hold five nutrition workshops.

Implementation Start Date：2019-01-01

Implementation End Date：2023-12-31

Project Objectives：

1. Produce a total of 10 tons vegetables and fruits, expand production area (over seven hectares), and assist farmers to be able to produce 20 tons of vegetables and fruits.
2. Assist Bureau of Agriculture to be able to produce a total of 80,000 taro seedlings. 
3. Establish 10 garden demonstration farms and provide continuous counseling to five school farms for Palau’s teachers and students.
4. Provide low-priced vegetables and fruits for 1,200 students’ lunch meals.
5. Produce over 150 cubic meters of organic compost every year and promote composting technology and reduce the use of chemical fertilizers .
6. Trial and test 10 kinds of fruit and vegetable processed products, and select three kinds of products to sell in the last year of the project (in 2023).
7. Hold five nutrition workshops.

Executing Agency：

Taiwan Technical Mission in the Republic of Palau / Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and the Enviroment (Republic of Palau)

Current Progress：

To the end of Dec. 2023, the following activities have been completed:

1. Produced a total of 90,487 kg vegetables and fruits.

2. Produced a total of 294,898 taro seedlings.

3. Produced 548 cubic meters of compost.

4. Held 15 horticulture workshops and 7 compost processing workshops.

5. Assisted 7 school farms, 13 home gardens and 3 commercial farms to produce vegetables and fruits.

6. Provided a total of 38,800 kg vegetables and fruits for lunch meals. Held 9 nutritional balance workshops.

7. Developed calamondin and lemon jam, taro milk, fried taro chips, fried taro balls, soursop gelato recipes, sliced taro and okra cake, roselle ice cream, roselle tea, pitaya lemon juice, dry-sliced pitaya, dried guava strips, chocolate, and chocolate biscuits.

Project Performance：Increase vegetable and fruit production in Palau by 10 percent.

Project Contact：Yi, WEI

Phone：886-2-28732323 ext.6141

E-mail：y.wei@icdf.org.tw

Mission：Taiwan Technical Mission in the Republic of Palau