Tropical Fruit: Finding the Right Source for Seedlings and Grafted Plants Pays Off in Quality; Scholar Urges National Investment in R&D
(Continued from previous text) As the climate warms, the future looks promising for tropical fruit trees, but from planting a sapling to harvesting the crop, farmers must be patient. Depending on the growing method, golden fruit takes 2 to 5 years to bear fruit, durian honey takes 3 to 6 years before it can be harvested, and rambutan takes 2.5 to 6 years before there is fruit to pick; some farmers even plant saplings and wait 10 years in vain without a single fruit - the growing period is longer, the variables at harvest increase, and no one can guarantee the future economic value of the fruit trees.
Liu Bijuan, associate researcher at the Fengshan Branch of the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute: "Are the farmers who plant these new things pioneers or martyrs? They may fail, and the risk they bear is great." Because of the uncertainty about how emerging fruit trees adapt to the environment, most farmers currently plant only a small amount on a trial basis. However, having few pests and diseases, needing little pesticide spraying, and requiring only low-intensity manual work have attracted many retirees to grow them or ordinary people to put idle land to use.
How to grow them? If I want to plant them, how can I get a source of seedlings?
Yan Changrui, professor in the Department of Horticulture at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, analyzed that compared with the extensive practices in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, cultivation management in Taiwan is more refined, such as thinning fruit to keep better-quality fruit and adjusting the production period to match market supply, while Taiwan's farmers and research institutions keep improving varieties and techniques, so the fruit they produce is large and sweet. "This is also why Southeast Asia and the mainland now almost all adopt our varieties and cultivation techniques."
To maintain better varieties, raise the survival rate and shorten the juvenile period of fruit trees, Yan Changrui recommends using grafted propagation, as with rambutan and durian honey. "Golden fruit can use seedling trees; sow the seeds and it will bear fruit in about a year and a half to two years, but there will be some variation, which is still within an acceptable range."
Yan Changrui also reminded farmers interested in trying to grow these that, because of the special nature of the industry, emerging fruit tree seedlings often become a tool for seedling dealers to speculate with. "For a while I did not dare hold field demonstration days, because as soon as a demonstration day was held, a year later seedling prices were hyped up, from 200 dollars per tree to 2000 dollars. Fruit is just fruit; do not treat it as a tool for speculation, and growers must have this concept too. There is no need to buy seedlings for 2000 or 3000 dollars each." Before buying seedlings, besides doing your homework and comparing several sellers, you can also first obtain a small number of seedlings for trial planting from more credible academic research institutions such as the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, agricultural improvement stations, or the agricultural extension committees of universities and colleges.
Continuing the Advantage of Few Pests and Diseases, Staying Off the Vicious Cycle
How to maintain the "fewer pests and diseases" advantage of emerging fruit trees is also homework that the natural environment assigns to farmers. Yan Changrui recalled that when he first began researching dragon fruit 30 years ago, there were not many pest and disease problems, but now they are getting more and more serious. "When farmers manage cultivation, they fertilize improperly and spray too much pesticide, causing pests to develop resistance."
Farmers getting into emerging fruit trees should take precautions and use pesticides in the right amount. Yan Changrui said: "In the past, many farmers sprayed pesticide as soon as there were pests or diseases. Now, after education efforts, everyone may gradually understand the ecology of pests and diseases - in fact, as long as you spray at the right time, it is easier to control." In recent years, industry, government and academia have advocated friendly environmental farming, which also helps emerging fruits stay off the path of a vicious cycle.
Yan said: "For organic cultivation we also recommend these new fruits; pest and disease damage is less, and they are easier to manage." Liao Junsheng uses natural farming for golden fruit cultivation. He said: "Every month we spray chitosan, actinomycetes and Bacillus subtilis for biological control. We control it at the front end and do not do the pesticide spraying at the back end."
Emerging Fruits Are Mostly Sold Directly by Producers; Production and Marketing Groups Pursue Traceability Certification
Durian honey, golden fruit and rambutan currently have high unit market prices. Operators of emerging fruits mostly sell directly from their own production, with online home delivery, and a small portion of the fruit enters auction markets. To be competitive in the market and highlight product value, obtaining a label or certification is also one path.
The one that pushed the Agriculture and Food Agency and the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute to establish "Taiwan Good Agriculture Practice (TGAP)" for golden fruit and durian honey was the 31st Fruit Tree Production and Marketing Group in Chaozhou, Pingtung. Most members of Group 31 are retired public school and government employees. After a visit to an orchard in Liugui, Kaohsiung in 2010, the members came up with the idea of growing durian honey and golden fruit. To improve fruit quality, the production and marketing group asked the Fengshan Branch of the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute to write the TGAP, and later durian honey and golden fruit were produced in accordance with TGAP standardized operating procedures and models, both obtaining agricultural product production and marketing traceability certification.
"Every year we also hold agricultural observation events and two large-scale agricultural cultivation technique workshops." Member Luo Xiumei mentioned that in the process of observation they absorb others' experience, and they also hire domestic scholars and experts to come to the production and marketing group to explain cultivation techniques.
Liao Junsheng's golden fruit sales channel is mainly online home delivery. His sales strategy is not to enter the wholesale market and drag down the price of his own product. "We use the more costly natural farming method. If we take it to market, the price will be beaten down to the same as that of conventional farming, so we do not sell in the market; we would rather turn the poorer or oversupplied fruit into vinegar, wine or enzymes." Not only does he raise cultivation costs, but he also uses better packaging material so that the large, bright yellow fresh fruit is presented to customers. The home-delivery price of Liao Junsheng's own high-quality golden fruit can be at least 2 times higher than the market wholesale price.
