Local farmers to gain from first-hand experience in Taiwan

Through the collaborative effort of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Taiwan Technical Mission, six farmers will travel to Taiwan in March to see first-hand, how productive farmer groups operate.{{more}}

Chin-Yu Lee, chief of the mission, stated during a press conference last Friday that it is their hope that strong farmer groups are formed in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Lee explained that through his organization, he was able to negotiate with a prominent Taiwanese farmer group to let the Vincentian farmers “stay with them to see their full operation in greenhouse cultivation of sweet peppers, and collection, grading and export.”

Describing the small contingent of farmers as the “seed for the farmer groups in the future”, the chief noted that, hopefully, they will bring back the knowledge of how farmer groups work together to cultivate a single crop for foreign and local markets.

In addition, he revealed that the Ministry and the Taiwan mission will be facilitating a new programme to improve farmer techniques in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

“Those six farmers is a beginning. [We] hope that six farmers come back from Taiwan then we can work with six farmers and other newly formed farmer groups to introduce those experiences and innovative techniques,” Lee said. “We mainly want to see the farmer groups in St Vincent formed nicely”.

The workshop in Taiwan is expected to run from March 24 to April 3. (BK)