Piles and piles of ripe, swelling eggplants, watermelons, and tomatoes in the marketplace: this too is another easily recognizable face of Taiwan.

Meanwhile the real "Taiwan faces"--sunburnt and dripping with sweat in the South Pacific sun--belong to those R.O.C. agricultural technicians diligently demonstrating and explaining to local students how to plant field after field and grow piles and piles of ripe, swelling fruits and vegetables.

As a fiery tropical sun hangs in the sky, thirty or forty junior high students sit under the coconut trees and listen with some puzzlement to Lin Kao-hsing's lectures.

What Lin Kao-hsing is teaching, of course, is not Chinese. In not very fluent English, this member of the R.O.C. agricultural technology team is explaining the benefits of planting with improved seeds. On the agriculturally underdeveloped Solomons, teaching the locals how to grow food is more important than giving it to them.

Junior and senior high school students in the Solomons must all take agriculture class, and all eight members of the R.O.C. agricultural technology team, except the team leader, teach agriculture at the nation's only senior high school and its two junior highs. Each school has a practice field for the students, who are supervised by two or three team members.

The eight members of the team--leader Chen Yi-sung, deputy leader Chang Yan-chuen, and members Wu Kung-Chu, Yong Ching-shang, Lin Yeou-der, Hsu San-chi, Lin Kao-hsing, and Chen Jieh-chuan are veterans of past missions to Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia among other places. They have been sent to the Solomons one after another since 1983 to begin another chapter in the R.O.C.'s history of aiding its allies in agricultural development.

Bearing a solid background in the agricultural technology for which Taiwan is famous and possessing years of experience "in the field" overseas, each team member specializes in an area of expertise--be it agricultural chemicals, seed improvement, or agricultural machinery--so that no problem, it seems, is too great for them. "Theoretically, any kind of soil can grow crops," a team member said confidently.

At the request of the Solomons government, the team has switched its work from running model farms for farmers to teaching students. The students at the junior and senior high schools on Guadalcanal are the future elite of the nation, but will they really put what the teams have so assiduously taught them to work when they return home after graduation?

"Very few may actually take part in agriculture," a team member says. But what the team and the Solomons government emphasize is that their work is an investment in the future: Because these students represent the source of future government policy makers, only if they have sound agricultural concepts can agriculture on the Solomons hope to develop properly.

Natural conditions on the Solomons are not favorable to agriculture; the soil is poor, and agricultural methods are primitive. The traditional method has been to clear an area by fire and loosen the soil by hoe before planting, and afterwards simply weed--without using fertilizer, irrigation, or chemicals.

So when the R.O.C. team came to Solomons five years ago, the locals didn't understand what they had come for and didn't cooperate much, and the team had problems even finding a piece of land for demonstration. It was only in April and September of the following year, through the personal intervention of D. Dulei, the Solomons minister for national development, that the team was able to obtain two pieces of land to set up model farms.

The main crops on the Solomons are sweet potatoes, cassava, taro, and yams, while green vegetables are scarce. One day, four months after the team's model farm had started up, Minister Dulei was invited there to eat. Surprised and pleased at the variety of crops, he suggested that they hold an exhibition, and it was through the success of that exhibition that the team made its name throughout the country.

Technical problems, such as damage from pests and insufficient water resources, could be overcome by the introduction of insect-proof seeds and irrigation equipment, but some other areas the team found more difficult to handle.

Average monthly temperatures on the Solomons range from 22 to 30 degrees Celsius, a climate hard even for people raised on semitropical Taiwan to get used to. One team member had to be sent back to Taiwan because of sun poisoning.

More dangerous than sunburn are bombs. Guadalcanal was the scene of heavy fighting during World War Ⅱ, and many unexploded bombs lie hidden under-ground, posing a threat particularly to farmers. "A bomb was set off just last week when someone was firing a field," said deputy leader Chang, still looking unsettled.

But what bothers team members the most is homesickness. Local conditions make it unsuitable for them to bring along their families, so Saturday night, when overseas telephone rates are at a minimum, has become the high point of their week, when they troop to the telephone office to talk to their wives, sons, and daughters back home.

In this way, what the R.O.C.'s agricultural technology team on the Solomons is cultivating is a field which will blossom and bear fruit only in time, a kind of citizen diplomacy where immediate effects may not be apparent but where the long-term influence is lasting and profound.

[Picture Caption]

Under palm trees and sunny skies--that's where the agricultural technology team's story begins.

(Left) We reap what we sow. A student plants seedlings carefully.

(Right) Growing fruit on trellises is a new idea for the locals. Under the agricultural team's guidance, students set up a trellis for melons.

A team member holding a seedling explains planting methods.

A good workman takes care of his tools: teaching a student how to operate an agricultural machine.

(Upper right) The team teaches junior high school students how to clear a field by burning.

(Lower right) Chicken-raising is another of the team's areas of expertise.

"And do what your mother says!" Telephoning home is extremely important to the members of the agricultural team.

(Right) Lin Kao-hsing, who writes home every day, has collected quite a stack on his end too.

Sipping tea, chatting, and listening to the Voice of Free China are other ways of dealing with homesickness.

（Left） We reap what we sow. A student plants seedlings carefully.

（Right） Growing fruit on trellises is a new idea for the locals. Under the agricultural team's guidance, students set up a trellis for melons.

A team member holding a seedling explains planting methods.

A good workman takes care of his tools: teaching a student how to operate an agricultural machine.

（Upper right） The team teaches junior high school students how to clear a field by burning.

（Lower right） Chicken-raising is another of the team's areas of expertise.

"And do what your mother says!" Telephoning home is extremely important to the members of the agricultural team.

Sipping tea, chatting, and listening to the Voice of Free China are other ways of dealing with homesickness.

（Right） Lin Kao-hsing, who writes home every day, has collected quite a stack on his end too.