Seedling plastic plug trays consume a million kilograms a year; the Hualien District Agricultural Research and Extension Station switches to pulp plug trays to save labor and cut plastic

Environmentally friendly plug trays that save labor and cut plastic are here! The Hualien District Agricultural Research and Extension Station (abbreviated as Hualien DARES) has partnered with Hsing Chung Paper to launch a decomposable "multifunctional pulp seedling tray." Made from virgin pulp, the plug tray has an organic matter content of 99.5%, and it automatically decomposes in the soil in just 30-40 days, causing no environmental burden and even serving as soil fertilizer. Farmers who trialed it noted that it improves crop growth efficiency and has an insect-repelling effect.

Tsai Yi-feng, acting director of the Hualien DARES, said that traditional plastic plug trays used for vegetable seedling cultivation cannot decompose, and the seedlings must later be moved elsewhere for transplanting, whereas using the "multifunctional pulp seedling tray" allows seedling cultivation and transplanting to be completed in one go, easing the problem of insufficient field labor. It also suppresses weeds and helps clean up the field. A half-price promotion is currently being offered, at only 10 yuan per tray.

Half-price subsidy during the promotion period, only 10 yuan per tray

Does this handy new-style seedling tray increase farmers' purchasing costs? Lin Wen-hua explained that a traditional plastic plug tray costs about 7 yuan each, while the new-style seedling tray currently sells for 20 yuan each. Farmers in Taiwan, China who grow small leafy vegetables have an average cultivated area of about 2.5 fen. If 10,000 "multifunctional pulp seedling trays" are expected to be used at one time, that means each cultivation cycle requires an investment of 200,000 yuan in seedling trays, and they are used an average of 8-9 times a year, so the cost is truly not low.

But he pointed out that at the current promotion stage, farmers only need to bring their purchase receipt to the Hualien DARES to receive a subsidy of half the cost, equivalent to a 50% discount. The subsidy campaign runs until the end of next year (2019), and purchases can be made at the Hsing Chung Paper store. He also mentioned that if market acceptance is high in the future, the price of the new-style seedling trays will be lowered once mass-produced, and he hopes it can match the price of plastic plug trays.

Tsai Yi-feng also responded that the "multifunctional pulp seedling tray" has high development potential. At present, because the source and compositional safety of recycled pulp are taken into consideration, virgin pulp is still used as the raw material. If recycled pulp materials become sufficient in the future, further development of "recycled pulp plug trays" will be carried out, and other agricultural waste such as rice husks and rice straw may even be mixed into the pulp to make plug trays, in the hope of helping reduce more agricultural waste.