Civil works linked to the 12-year Samoa-China Agricultural Technical Aid Project has been officially handed over to the Samoa Government by China's Embassy in Apia. 

The civil works under the Samoa-China Agricultural Technical Aid Project (SCATAP) now comes under Samoa's Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF). The civil works included agricultural facilities and infrastructure comprising experts’ residence, feed mill, breeder house and brooder house, according to a statement released on Thursday by the Ministry.

The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, La’auli Leuatea Schmidt, thanked the Government of the People’s Republic of China through the SCATAP team, for their contribution to the sustainable development of the agricultural sector in Samoa.

"The implementation of the SCATAP project has played an important role in stabilising vegetable supplies and prices in Samoa in the context of the global food crisis," said the Minister. 

La’auli also acknowledged with appreciation the efforts and "innovative work" of the Chinese expert team led by Jim Liu as well as the Chinese implementation agency Hunan Province Agricultural Foreign Economic Cooperation Center, the Zheng Construction Company and others who supported the project.

China's Ambassador to Samoa, Chao Xiaoliang, said in his remarks that the SCATAP demonstration farm in Samoa is the largest comprehensive farm funded through Chinese Aid in the Pacific. 

He said that the main objective of the SCATAP demonstration farm is to enhance local agricultural production, improve food security and increase farmers' income for the benefit of the people of Samoa.

The ceremony concluded with a visit around the SCATAP demonstration farm civil works at Nu’u outside the Samoan capital.

The SCATAP ran for 12 consecutive years since 2010 and has employed a total of 40 agricultural experts who were flown in from China to work at the various project sites in Samoa.

The project established a demonstration farm at Nu’u, facilitated the setting up of nine agricultural stations and developed 100 model farmers. It also promoted nine agricultural technology packages, including new crop varieties, tunnel house vegetable cultivation, free range broiler production, crops-livestock-biogas recycling technology, high yield citrus production and agricultural machineries. 

The SCATAP has also provided 200 tunnel houses as well as 100 machineries and agricultural training for more than 10,000 farmers and officials in Samoa.