Pohnpei Farmers' Graduate from Agriculture Training Course

By Amy Levendusky

Forty-seven farmers (41 men and 5 women) graduated from the Pohnpei Farmer's Training, hosted by Pohnpei State Agriculture, from October 30th to November 8th, 2006. The objectives of the training included, to teach farmers new and improved techniques of production and marketing of vegetables and other crops, to update farmers on the types of services that are available to them on island, to find out from the farmers what kinds of services they feel they still need, and finally to enable farmers to learn from one another.

Mr. Kadalino Lorens of Pohnpei Agriculture coordinated the training. Five days of the training were devoted to classroom style lectures at the Office of Agriculture located in Kolonia given by facilitators from the following agencies: Pohnpei State Agriculture, COM-FSM Land Grant Extension, Public Health, Development for Sustainable Agriculture in the Pacific (DSAP), Conservation Society of Pohnpei (CSP), Island Food Community of Pohnpei (IFCP), FSM Development Bank, Ellen's Market, Caroline Island Enterprises, Pohnpei Business Development Center, Small Business Guarantee, Natural Resource Conservation Service-USDA, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) -Plant Protection and the German Regional Forestry Project.

One day of the training was devoted to a field trip to the FSM Pilot Farm located in Pohnlangas. The farmers were able to observe first hand the different techniques used to grow vegetables. The Chinese Technical Team and Agriculture staff briefly explained/demonstrated the following techniques: application of compost and fertilizer, pest management, weed control, pruning, pollination, water management, drainage, genebank collection, harvesting, washing, packaging, and marketing.

One day of the training course was devoted to group work in which participants discussed their priority needs. A graduation ceremony was held during the last day of the training where each participant received a certificate of completion from the course and a DSAP t-shirt. A lunch was then served of only local foods. (Throughout the training all local food lunches were also provided.)

Pohnpei State Agriculture extends its appreciation to all of the farmers who participated in the workshop. The office also thanks all the facilitators from the agencies listed above for their valuable contributions to the training. The Pohnpei State Government is thanked for funding this training.