Farming also means protecting habitats: join hands to safeguard the rare pheasant-tailed jacana and the banded crake
In Toyooka, Japan, to "bring the Oriental stork back to the skies," the city began promoting reduced-pesticide rice paddies 15 years ago, becoming a model for habitat restoration in Japan; in Tainan and Yilan, farmers have also independently begun promoting eco-friendly farming in recent years to protect birds, the former for the "wave-riding fairy," the pheasant-tailed jacana, and the latter for the banded crake, an old friend of early farmers. But compared with other species, birds need a much larger habitat to live and thrive. The pheasant-tailed jacana farmland in Guantian, Tainan, covers about 20-plus hectares, and Tiandong Rice had 2 hectares in its first year. Although neither amounts to even one-tenth of the local area, they have already given farmers plenty of headaches, as they worry whether the rice can be sold smoothly.
Waterbird conservation requires large habitats, and farmers fret over selling their rice
Because of the lack of an overall policy, dedicated farmers can only rely on themselves. Lin Zhe'an revealed that the rent for one fen of farmland in Xinnan is about 23,000 yuan, and next year they plan to promote farmland adoption, but the details still need further planning. At present, they are looking for restaurants and businesses that share the same philosophy to cooperate with, and 2 Yilan restaurants have already agreed to subscribe to the rice. He hopes everyone can buy more rice or help find partners.
Earthfriend Organic began last year to launch the "Accompanying Guantian Adoption Plan," designing four different gift box sets, including water caltrop rice, water caltrop rice noodles, and water caltrop soap made from materials such as water caltrop shells, water caltrop kernels and organic rice bran, as well as farm experience courses.
Yang Conggui said they are not trying to compete with distributors for business, but rather hope more people will walk into the farmland, get close to the local ecology, environment, history and farmers' stories, and move from simply knowing about it to accompanying it, understanding the local value. Previously, a company subscribed, came to the farmland to experience hand-harvesting rice and threshing; although their backs ached, they had a lot of fun and continued subscribing this year, and he hopes more people will join the ranks of protecting the pheasant-tailed jacana.
1. Earthfriend Organic Alliance Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/earthfriend.organic?fref=ts
Earthfriend Organic Alliance website:
http://shui-ling.organic.org.tw/supergood/front/bin/home.phtml
2. Xinnan Tiandong Rice Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages//544457128995292?ref=ts&fref=ts
Pre-order page http://www.spoonduckyilan.blogspot.tw/2014/03/blog-post_31.html