Organic rice market saturated, Hualien District Agricultural Research and Extension Station teaches you to grow organic taro with less fertilizer for health and higher income

Organic taro cultivation trial succeeds! Hualien Ji'an farmer Shih Hou-chung cooperated with the Hualien District Agricultural Research and Extension Station (abbreviated as Hualien DARES) to experimentally grow organic wetland taro last year. By adjusting the timing and amount of organic fertilizer and pest control materials, not only were pest and disease problems reduced, but the plants were also healthier than those in conventional fields. This year, the yield per 0.1 hectare reached 1600 Taiwan jin, and estimated at a market price of 120 to 130 yuan per Taiwan jin, the annual output value can reach 200,000.

Ni Li-feng, assistant researcher in the Crop Environment Section of the Hualien DARES, said that organic cultivation fertilizer must be measured precisely. Conventional farming uses fast-acting chemical fertilizers, but in paddy fields, due to runoff, leaching and denitrification, fertilizer efficiency drops significantly, and farmers frequently apply supplementary fertilizer. The average nitrogen fertilizer use per hectare is as high as 1100 to 1400 kg, twice the recommended amount of 700 kg. "Farmers are used to growing very large plants, but they become puffy, which instead makes pests and diseases harder to control."

Ni Li-feng pointed out that organic materials release nutrients more slowly than chemical fertilizers and have slow-release characteristics, so their fertilizer effect lasts longer. Combined with wetland taro, a medium- to long-term crop, this can bring out their advantages. If farmers properly manage alternating wet and dry field water, fertilizer loss is reduced, and 500 to 600 kg of organic nitrogen per hectare is enough to supply the nutrients needed for wetland taro growth.