Project Overview
Western Pacific Sustainable Agriculture Participatory Training Network: Eight islands, twelve trainings.
Commodities
Practices
Proposal abstract:
The U.S. Land Grant System reaches the three island nations (Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Palau, and Republic of the Marshall Islands) served by the College of Micronesia (COM) with the three islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) (Saipan, Rota, and Tinian) served by The Northern Marianas College (NMC) and Guam served by the University of Guam (UOG). These are geographically isolated islands spread over a large area of the Pacific Ocean. There are significant barriers to promoting and coordinating SARE activities and trainings in these islands. Technical expertise is spread thin across these three institutions. Transportation costs have been a significant barrier to conducting sustainable agriculture and other trainings. In the most recent multi-state PDP enhanced state program grant, six WSARE island liaisons were trained (weekly 1-2 hour trainings) across these islands using the Zoom platform successfully on cellular phones, laptops, and desktop computers. This project will build on this effort by installing the needed equipment in a conference/class room to effectively deliver sustainable agriculture distance education trainings to groups of agriculture professionals and farmers on each island, simultaneously. This project will pilot using our regional expertise base to deliver multiple trainings across the islands travel-free. The project will equip a conference room with a smart screen, multi-directional microphone, and speakers to deliver a series of 12 sustainable agriculture trainings. Training topics are based on training needs identified in focus groups conducted during the previous year.