The ROC dispatched its first overseas agricultural mission to Liberia in 1961, after which the ROC’s foreign aid program expanded from there into the Middle East, the Asia–Pacific region, and Latin America. The range of foreign aid activities constantly expanded, to include agriculture, fisheries, aquaculture, animal husbandry, handicrafts, oil pressing, sugar refining, brewing and distilling, and irrigation works. And in the places where our agricultural missions worked, initially leery local residents became supportive and admiring.

Reporting from the field(s)

The ROC since 1963 has had an agricultural mission in the Dominican Republic that has engaged in experimental work, focusing principally on rice. The rice experts there worked hard to find rice strains suited to local conditions.

In Malawi, an excellent irrigation network established by our agricultural mission converted large uncultivated areas into productive farm fields. From 1965, the mission split into five different teams that opened up 12 agricultural development districts, creating one new community after another in the process.

From 1969, the ROC agricultural mission in the southern African nation of Swaziland taught local residents how to cultivate rice, while handicrafts teams taught very popular courses in leather working, ceramics, and woodcarving.

An agricultural mission in Panama (1970) first started by cultivating vegetables and fruit, and later branched out gradually into the raising of hogs, shrimp, and ducks.

Also in 1970, Taiwan dispatched an agricultural mission to Thailand to promote a development project in the highlands. By replacing poppy with temperate-zone food plants, the project reduced the amount of drugs flowing out of that region onto world markets, and helped bring stability and prosperity to the mountainous districts of northern Thailand. In 1988, the project’s successes earned it the Ramon Magsaysay Award, often referred to as the Asian Nobel prize.

In 1972, an ROC agricultural mission set up operations in Bolivia that focused mainly on tea, soy beans, peanuts, and hog raising. The following year, 500 cayenne pineapple seedlings were shipped over by air from Taiwan, and the mission began working on the cultivation of pineapples and rice.

In 1972 the ROC also established an agricultural mission in Saudi Arabia, with which it enjoyed very close diplomatic ties. The mission worked on the cultivation of white radish, kale, napa, watermelons, and more.

The ROC and Saudi Arabia cooperated not only in agriculture, but also in such fields as fisheries, technology, engineering, and medicine. At the height of bilateral cooperation between the two nations, about 10,000 experts and technicians from Taiwan worked in Saudi Arabia.

In the South Pacific nation of the Solomon Islands, the staff at an ROC agricultural mission braved a blazing sun and successfully got eggplants, watermelons, and tomatoes to grow plump and juicy despite the highly acidic soil overlaying the volcanic rock there.

In 1969, the ROC helped Burkina Faso, a diplomatic ally in central Africa, with the internationally renowned Kou River Rice Cultivation Project. Then, after being away from Burkina Faso for over 20 years, an agricultural mission was once again dispatched to provide assistance, and another kind of “Taiwan miracle” was achieved in the Bagre Reclamation project.

Taiwan’s agricultural missions have had tremendous success wherever they’ve gone, but material deprivations, barebones medical services, and long separation from home have made the work a very trying experience. And Taiwan Panorama has been dropping in periodically to keep readers updated on the situation.

Compassion without borders

In recent years, Taiwanese NGOs have also begun to take part in international aid and disaster relief work. In 2008, Taiwan Panorama reporters visited Sri Lanka and Indonesia’s Aceh region—both of which had been devastated in the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004—to tour emergency housing projects built by groups from Taiwan. In addition to the Taiwan Village, there was also the Tzu Chi Great Love project, which comprised three different villages. These undertakings showed the world the great compassion of the people of Taiwan.

Environmental degradation and global warming threaten the continued survival and development of Pacific island nations. Taiwan Panorama visited Kiribati and Tuvalu in 2010 to better understand the problems facing these nations on the front lines of global warming.

A technical team from Taiwan’s International Co­opera­tion and Development Fund also set up operations in the South Pacific islands to work on the cultivation of vegetables and fruits, and the raising of milkfish. The idea was to find products to substitute for food imports. The nation of Kiribati straddles both the equator and the International Date Line, and is known as the world’s starting point. As our reporters gazed upon the first rays of the day’s first dawn, they were also witnessing the hope brought by Taiwan’s international aid.

ROC agricultural missions have worked miracles at the Bagre Reclamation project in Burkina Faso (facing page), and in Swaziland (left).

The Pacific island nation of Tuvalu now faces a dramatic threat to its survival.

The Pacific island nation of Tuvalu now faces a dramatic threat to its survival.

Taiwanese NGOs took part in reconstruction work after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. Shown here is the Tzu Chi National School in Sri Lanka.