to Palau Community College Website

Located in the heart of Babeldaob at Ngeremlengui State is the Research and Development (R&D) Station. With a total land area of 25 acres, the R&D Station is composed of multipurpose laboratories, green houses, rearing sheds, and a large experimental area to conduct various research projects. Currently there are designated areas for taro, cassava, sweet potato, cucumber, and ponds for the aquaculture of freshwater prawns.

There are several important agricultural issues facing Palau that CRE will address with research and demonstration projects at R&D Station. In the tissue culture program, high yielding varieties of crops with resistance to major pests and diseases will be mass propagated. Numerous disease-free planting materials produced by tissue culture will be distributed to farmers and interested parties. This would help with agricultural production in Palau. The aquaculture program will seek ways to develop local feed for aquaculture species to cut down the cost of production and therefore increasing profit margins for the farmers. CRE will also address the issues of environmental integrity by integrating aquaculture with agriculture and utilizing plants such as taro as natural filter of the aquaculture effluent.

We are mindful that the quest for improving agricultural production should not come at a cost to the natural environmental. At the R&D Station, Best Management Practices are employed to maintain the integrity of the environment.

The R&D Station will also serve as a demonstration site for farmers, students, and other people interested in farming. We will showcase new farming technologies, traditional methods of farming, Best Management Practices, and integration of agriculture and aquaculture.

Students can conduct field experiments and laboratory analysis using the field site and the multipurpose laboratories.

CRE hopes to expand from production to processing and marketing. In the future, we can use the R&D Station to produce the crops in the field, process them in the multipurpose laboratories, and facilitate marketing of products to different outlets in Palau and outside of Palau.