Taiwan donates motorcycles to Ministry of Agriculture

The Pink Hibiscus Mealy Bug may be the biggest challenge facing the Ministry of Agriculture lately, but on a daily basis the staff has to deal with transportation problems, especially in more remote areas. The Ministry got a little help today from Taiwan with a gift of six new motorcycles. Ambassador to Taiwan, Kuo-Hsiung Shen says the donation was made possible through the technical cooperation scheme. Minister of Agriculture Dan Silva, says they couldn’t have come at a better time.

Kuo-Hsiung Shen, Taiwanese Ambassador to Belize

“We were approached by the Ministry of Agriculture and after the evaluation, assessment, then we agreed to donate. This is part of the technical cooperation we have between both of our countries.”

Dan Silva, Minister of Agriculture

“This will be used by the extension officers to visit farmers. So it’s going; it’s a wonderful addition to our Ministry to enable us to do our work.”

Q: “Do those services include helping to control the mealy bug problem?”

Dan Silva

“Well that will be one of them, especially they come at a very appropriate time because we are getting a lot of calls from concerned citizens about the mealy bug. This will enable us to immediately visit the site and do an analysis of the area because there are a lot of false alarms where people see something that resembles a mealy bug and they call us. This will enable us to respond a lot quicker. We hope our officers use them to the max.”

Silva says the biological agents that will be used to control the Pink Hibiscus Mealy Bug will be applied to infected areas beginning on Wednesday. Today’s donation is valued at twenty-eight thousand dollars. Taiwan has made a similar donation of two vehicles to the Trade and Investment Promotion Service.