2018 College of Micronesia PDP Project

View the project final report

Commodities

• Fruits: avocados, bananas, papaya, pineapples,
• Vegetables: beans, cabbages, cucurbits, eggplant, greens (leafy), greens (lettuces), leeks, okra, peppers, sweet corn, sweet potatoes, taro, tomatoes
• Additional Plants: tobacco, trees
• Animals: swine
• Miscellaneous: Yam, Kava

Practices

• Animal Production: free-range
• Crop Production: cover crops, crop improvement and selection, cropping systems, crop rotation
• Education and Training: demonstration, display, extension, technical assistance, workshop, youth education
• Farm Business Management: farmers' markets/farm stands
• Pest Management: compost extracts, cultural control, mulches - general, sheet mulching
• Production Systems: hydroponics
• Soil Management: composting, green manures, organic matter, soil analysis
• Sustainable Communities: public participation, public policy, quality of life

Context, justification and assumptions -
Micronesia is divided politically into three (3) sovereign island nations comprising of six (6) island groups with eight (8) distinct languages; two (2) of the languages are of Polynesian origin, and four (4) dialects. The three (3) island nations are the Republic of Palau (ROP), the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). All of these island nations have their own political affiliation with the United States. For that purpose they are referred to as the Freely Associate States (FSA) with the United States of America. Micronesia islands are spread out from the Western Caroline to Eastern Caroline in the Pacific Ocean and occupied an area larger than the Mainland USA. Travel within the islands is very expensive, due in part to geographical locations, and because only one airline serves the region – Continental since 1970 and now United.
Communication is also a limiting factor. For effective communication and training, English is the official language. While training materials are often readily available and/or are developed in English the training level of most agriculture extension agents are high school or 2-year college. A significant segment of populations in the islands cannot read and understand English or their own language for that purpose. Consequently achieving planned agriculture education and professional learning and action goals is always a challenge. Last, but not the least, is the issue of funding level.

The AC adopted the issue during the Guam SARE Subregional meeting in 2007, but was
subsequently trash in Washington D.C. SARE PDP funds for Micronesia and Guam are at the same level, dollar to dollar. In terms of travel, what it took Bob Barber to accomplish in a day with about $30 for fuel on Guam would take Jackson Philip a couple of weeks with $3000 in Micronesia. The educational background for most of the agriculture extension agents is 2-year Associate of Arts and high school.
Given the education level for most agriculture extension agents in Micronesia - high school and 2-year Associate of Arts, and the capacity on the ground, and the very existence of food security and nutrition health-related (NCD) issues the need it is critical now than ever to upgrade the agents to empower farmers/producers to engage in sustainable agriculture production and utilization. 

Training in Micronesia has adopted the approach to include farmers (producers) and NGOs in its professional capacity development.
The project would expand on previous training topic of Production and Utilization and would
consist of the following activities:
(1) Conduct one-day follow-up training
(2) Conduct 1-2 days training to new target audiences
(3) Assemble training materials from previous trainings
(4) Develop evaluation survey, e.g. Survey Monkey for previous participants and for
current training participants
(5) Conduct survey – to be accomplished by State SARE Coordinator with the assistance
of SARE Liaisons/Co-coordinator recruited and trained under SARE Enhancement Grant
(with UOG).
c) Stakeholder and partner involvement –
Inputs from stakeholders are solicited through working with partner agencies - Department of
Resources and Development, Division of Agriculture, NRCS, NGOs such as farmers association,
Education, Health Services, and the Cooperative Researches and Extension (CRE) of the three (3) colleges in Micronesia – Palau Community College, College of Micronesia-FSM, and College of the Marshall Islands. To some extend inputs are solicited through working relationship with the Guam State SARE Coordinator, through which a UOG/COM enhancement grant was awarded recently. For the purpose of soliciting inputs for this grant, ongoing interactions continued between the State SARE Coordinator and the three colleges.
d) Inputs – State Implementation funds are primary funding source for this project. As practiced in previous project 10% salary and 10% benefit for the state SARE coordinator are budgeted. A part-time support staff, preferably an agriculture major student would be hired to assist the state SARE coordinator. This project provides funds to hire a locally based consultant or trainer to help conduct training. The consultant should not be anyone currently being employed by the Cooperative Research and Extension (CRE). It is anticipated each of the six (6) sites to conduct its own training utilizing, in addition to the consultant being hired, their own expertise at no cost to the project. For the evaluation component of this project SARE Liaisons at each of the sites would be tasked to assist. To the extend possible the state SARE coordinator would travel to at least 2 sites (counties) to assist in the training effort and to lead the evaluation effort. Each of the 6 sites shall be in charge and responsible for resources and contributions to support this project. The support includes training facility, transportation, and demonstration site. A $300 registration fee per site is budgeted for, funds collected may be used for snack and lunch for participants. This approach is necessary to keep participants at the training site to make effective use of time and to ensure continuity and participation.
Sites will be provided with registration funds, the same day or no later than one day after training started the amount $300 to cover registration fee. Consultation fee will b provided when training is completed and a signed request stating complete satisfaction is submitted to state SARE Coordinator, copy furnished COM Business Office. This request shall be accompanied by a memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed by consultant and person in charge of the training or his/her supervisor. Reimburse for training supplies and other costs will be made only when a training report is submitted to the State SARE Coordinator to include electronic copy of the following:
(1) List of participants,
(2) Objectives of training
(3) Electronic copy of training material or manual
(4) Pre and posttest results (to be prepared by training consultant, et all)
(5) Evaluation (to be prepared by state SARE Coordinator)
e) Outputs
1) Target audience – List the numbers and types of people who will be participating in each activity associated with your project.
2) Activities and methods – Include both formal training sessions (workshops, meetings, field days) and informal approaches (networks, facilitation, coaching sessions).
3) Products – What will your project produce? This may include educational materials, curricula
and/or new partnerships to conduct further educational efforts.

Training participants will learn science-based knowledge and skills to improve local production and utilization. In addition to technical aspects of local production, participants will increase their
awareness in why it is important to grow certain vegetables, health benefits and increase income
opportunity. Whenever applicable training, participants to share traditional knowledge and skills on how to grow and use specific food crops such as yam and taro.