TaiwanICDF - The Taiwan ICDF and International Regional Organization of Agricultural Health (OIRSA) jointly protect the banana industries of diplomatic allies

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The Taiwan ICDF and International Regional Organization of Agricultural Health (OIRSA) jointly protect the banana industries of diplomatic allies

Banana is an important agricultural export for Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize), with an annual export value of 1.421 billion US dollars. In order to prevent the global banana disease "Fusarium Tropical Race 4 (Foc TR4)" from invading Central America, the International Cooperation and Development Fund (Taiwan ICDF) is combining public and private sector forces such as the National Space Organization (NSPO) and Taiwan Banana Research Institute (TBRI) to promote the Regional Project for the Prevention and Control of Fusarium TR4 in Central America with the cooperation of the International Regional Organization of Plant and Animal Health (OIRSA). The international cooperation project introduces Taiwan's superior technology to establish a regional defense mechanism for diplomatically allied countries to ensure the sustained development of their banana industries.

On 16 June 2022, the TaiwanICDF, OIRSA and Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Food in Guatemala (MAGA) jointly held the "Regional Forum of Phytosanitary Forum in Latin America" and invited Dr. Shih-Chao Chiang and Dr. Chih-Ping Chao, experts from the Taiwan Banana Research Institute, to present "the resistant varieties and control experience against Foc TR4 in Taiwan." Share Taiwan's experience in the prevention and control of banana Foc TR4 and the successful cases of exporting disease-resistant varieties to help infected countries recover their banana industries (such as the Philippines and Mozambique). The forum attracted a total of 286 people, mostly agricultural agency personnel and banana producers from 17 countries (Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Taiwan). The total number of viewers online reached 1,451 persons. This success shows that Taiwan's technology and experience in the prevention and control of banana diseases have become objects of imitation for other countries.

In addition, the Taiwan ICDF has been cooperating with the NSPO since last year, using the advantages of satellite technology in Taiwan to establish an early warning and notification system for large-scale Foc TR4 infections. This system has been gradually introduced into Central America. At present, there are nine satellite monitoring points that have been set up in Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize to conduct data localization and computing performance optimization to be a decision-making tool for monitoring important agricultural diseases and this tool has achieved good results in the initial promotion stage. The Taiwan ICDF plans to continue exploring and pinpointing the needs of the agricultural producers in the future and developing technology tools that are accessible to front-line agricultural workers. This will highlight the effectiveness of our technical cooperation projects using technology to reduce disasters.