Project Name：Banana Revitalization Project in St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Project status：Completed projects

Cooperating Country：Caribbean, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Project Description：

The banana industry has high economic and social significance in St. Vincent and the Grenadines; both the governing and opposition parties pay great attention to the industry’s development.

The banana industry in St. Vincent is unable to compete with Latin America in terms of volume of production and prices. In addition, the loss of the preferential treatment for Windward Islands Bananas by the UK and factors such as rugged terrain, high wage costs, traditional cultivation methods and the challenge of managing Black Sigatoka Disease due to limited resources has led to a reduction in banana production volume.

This project aims to address the key problem of low unit output, which can be addressed by technical improvement through upgrading farmers’ capability of cultivation management and the capacity of extension officers in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry and Labour.

The objective is to increase unit output to 25 tons per hectare (the international average) in the banana plantations receiving assistance.

Implementation Start Date：2019-05-06

Implementation End Date：2022-12-31

Project Objectives：

Increase unit output of the banana farms receiving assistance to 25 tons/hectare (international average).

Executing Agency：

Taiwan Technical Mission in St. Vincent and Grenadines / Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry and Labour

Current Progress：

To the end of December 2022, the following activities have been completed:
1. Established one demonstration farm in Orange Hill.
2. Established four farmers demonstration fields.
3. Held 8 workshops for demonstration field achievement observation.
4. Promoted rationalized fertilization area of 160 hectares.
5. Provided fungicides and mineral oils needed to control Black Sigatoka and strengthen the spraying of 1620 hectares of banana plant.
6. Held 16 farmers training.
7. Trained three extension officers to have the abilities of banana disease prediction and investigation.
8. Survey and predict to build the Epidemic notification system to notice farmers every week.
9. Introduced an integrated pest management (IPM) model.
10. Produced 43988 banana tissue culture seedlings.

Project Contact：Tingyu Chou

Phone：+886-2-28732323 ext. 6052

E-mail：t.y.chou@icdf.org.tw

Signing Date：2019-05-06

Mission：Taiwan Technical Mission in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines