Shangde in Donghe Township Will Be Developed into a Herb Settlement: County Magistrate Huang Chien-ting Personally Visits to Inspect

Taitung County Magistrate Huang Chien-ting visited Shangde Village in Donghe Township on the 5th, mainly to understand the current status of the herb industry in Shangde Village in terms of varieties cultivated, manpower, area, processing plant and sales channels, as well as to inspect the current condition of the idle Shangde Elementary School. County Magistrate Huang Chien-ting gave high praise to Chen Jen-ting, chairman of the Shangde Community Association, for actively developing the area into a herb settlement, and suggested that he apply for relevant special loans such as the county government's Prosperous Homeland program to solve funding needs, and the county government will also fully assist.

At 9 a.m. that day, County Magistrate Huang Chien-ting, accompanied by Councilors Liu Chun-ko and Lin Tung-man, County Government Agriculture Director Hsu Jui-kuei, Tourism Director Chiang Hui-ching, Donghe Township Chief Chen Shih-hung and others, went to Shangde Village to understand the current status of herb industry development. Chen Jen-ting, chairman of the Shangde Community Association, explained the current cultivation and operation situation and future implementation direction to the magistrate and others. He said that herbs have been cultivated for 6 years, and this year the area can reach 10 jia. At present, most employees are middle-aged and elderly, about 8~10 people, and contract farming is also carried out with other manufacturers, with fixed sales channels. In the future, pomelo flowers will also be harvested and processed into essential oil and hydrosol.

After the inspection, County Magistrate Huang Chien-ting pointed out that Donghe Township has mountains, sea and rich agricultural products; however, because there are no related industries, residents have long been unable to stay, resulting in a large elderly population. He was very glad to see that Chen Jen-ting, a local son of Donghe, could return to his hometown to develop the herb industry, and hoped to develop the remote mountainous Taiyuan Shangde area into a herb settlement. In the future, related industries such as essential oils can also be developed to attract young people to return home to work. The county government is also willing to provide assistance, and low-interest loans such as the county government's Prosperous Homeland program can also be applied for to solve funding needs.