By Government Press Office | BELIZE
BELMOPAN, Belize – From August 15 – 18, 2022, two officers from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise (MAFSE) participated in a technical exchange visit in El Salvador.
While in El Salvador they visited the Centro Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria y Forestal (CENTA) and fruit tree producers to gather information on research and technology transfer in non-traditional fruit crops such as dragon fruit, soursop, coconut, pineapple and avocado.
This exchange was coordinated by the Belize and El Salvador delegations of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and was funded through the ongoing technical cooperation titled Regional Collaboration, Capacity Building and Development of Germplasm Management for Nontraditional Fruit Tree in Belize.
This technical cooperation project aims to provide direct support to MAFSE to develop a germplasm collection for non-traditional fruit trees including pitahaya, coconut, passion fruit, avocado and soursop, as well as to contribute necessary resources to conduct research and development, coordinate technical capacity building, and facilitate field exchanges between partner institutions and industry stakeholders (public and private) for the advancement of the non-traditional fruit tree industry in Belize.
The delegation was accompanied by a fruit tree producer and a representative of Belize Agricultural Health Authority responsible for the regulation of imports of plant material. The main objective of the technical visit was to identify quality germplasm for introduction.