Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Additional Plants: native plants
- Animals: bovine, poultry, goats, swine
- Animal Products: dairy
Practices
- Animal Production: herbal medicines, preventive practices
- Education and Training: technical assistance, demonstration, extension, farmer to farmer, focus group, on-farm/ranch research
- Farm Business Management: new enterprise development, budgets/cost and returns, value added
- Sustainable Communities: new business opportunities, public participation, community services, sustainability measures
Proposal abstract:
The shortage of animal health experts, drug restrictions usage, food safety concerns, particularly antibiotic and chemical residues in livestock produced, language variations, cultural differences, geographical locations, and loss in indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants for most Western Pacific extension professionals and producers have stimulated renewed interest in alternative methods of promoting livestock health. The project has three objectives and phases. The first objective is to train the paravets, extension staff, local and federal field officers, farmers and producers in the CNMI, Guam, Palau, FSM and the Marshall Islands for medicinal plants application for animal healthcare available in the tropics. First phase will be the Train the Trainers Program that will impart Asian technology transfer on plant medicinal applications and preparations for livestock healthcare to Western Pacific. The second phase and objective, is to produce sustainable educational materials in different native languages such as manuals, posters, cd database, and videos/DVD of the available medicinal plants in the Western Pacific. This information will be distributed to the region for all islands to share the knowledge and be able to apply those practical practices to their farm operations; and the final phase and objective, is to conduct workshops in the CNMI, Guam, Palau, FSM, and the Marshall Islands to disseminate and share gained knowledge with government agencies and the community within the Western Pacific. An external faculty of NMC-CREES who is not directly involved with the project will be giving the over-all evaluation from the first phase to third phase. Third year will be allocated to further evaluate the over-all project. The project will utilize and empower recent certified paravets and producers through data collections, workshop presentations, decision-making, and extension animal health services. The project outreach will promote positive community awareness and acceptance to about 100 or more producers per island-group and at the same time revitalize the usage of traditional and alternative plant medicines in the Western Pacific. It is estimated that approximately 50% of the producers in each island will understand better about medicinal plants for livestock health. Increased utilization of available plant resources among Pacific Islanders will promote the development of value-added products from plants grown in the Western Pacific. The paravets and producers participating in this project will be the advocates of alternative plant medicine for animal healthcare. Since, alternative plant medicine is considered as highly recommended, economical, and environmentally friendly, it is clear that it will complement sustainable organic farming and improve animal health as well as human health. This project will promote further regional partnership and collaboration through the leadership and empowerment of the participants especially the local paravets.
Project objectives from proposal:
1) This project aims to train paravets, extension staff, local and federal field officers, farmers and producers in the CNMI, Guam, Palau, FSM and the Marshall Islands for medicinal plants application for animal healthcare available in the tropics;
2) To produce sustainable educational materials such as manuals, posters, cd database, and videos/DVD of the available medicinal plants in the Western Pacific;
3) And to conduct workshops in the CNMI, Guam, Palau, FSM, and the Marshall Islands to disseminate and share gained knowledge with government agencies and the community within the Western Pacific.