Lifting the EU yellow card, creating a edamame miracle: 17 research teams solve problems for Taiwan's agriculture and win the first National Agricultural Science Award

To solve the social and economic problems facing Taiwan's agriculture through science, it all depends on tireless researchers! This year the Council of Agriculture presented the "National Agricultural Science Award" for the first time, the highest award for national-level agricultural science and technology research and development. The Council of Agriculture stressed that what makes this award different from past agricultural awards is its cross-disciplinary integration and innovation, as well as its practical application in social and economic terms. Winners are not selected on the basis of published academic papers, but on actually solving agricultural problems.

The National Agricultural Science Award has 5 major fields, namely "Industry Contribution," "Socio-Economic Development," "Forward-Looking Innovation," "Cross-Domain Value-Added" and "Environmental Sustainability"; this year a total of 85 entries competed, and in the end 17 teams won various awards, spanning the fields of agriculture, forestry, fisheries and animal husbandry. Evaluation representative and chairman of the Taiwan Agricultural Association, Lu Husheng, said the rules explicitly require each competing team to have produced results in the previous 1 to 3 years in order to enter, but this year all the winning teams had already been working quietly for more than three years, and these low-key researchers deserve everyone's applause and recognition.

Four years developing a marine information system, successfully lifting the yellow card

The winner of the Outstanding Excellence Award in the Socio-Economic Development category this time is the marine information system Deep Sea 9 team. Hsu Wei-yuan, assistant professor at National Taiwan Ocean University, spent four years developing the Deep Sea 9 system. This system includes a vessel monitoring system (VMS), electronic logbooks (eLogbooks), a catch management system and geographic information systems such as satellite mapping. The Deep Sea 9 system successfully got Taiwan removed from the EU's fisheries yellow card list in June this year, preserving the revenue of the distant-water fishing industry.

Hsu Wei-yuan explained that after installing the vessel monitoring system (VMS), it is possible to know fishing vessels' tracks, voyages and catches, and it can provide real-time information on vessel positioning and catches throughout the year. This system is currently deployed at the fisheries monitoring center, and its main tasks include track reporting, directed port transshipment and landing of fish, port inspection reports, and intelligent detection of transshipment at sea.

"In two weeks the EU will come to Taiwan again to look at distant-water fisheries. Although we have already been removed from the yellow card, if there are still problems after that, they will not issue a yellow card again, but will directly issue a red card, but we are confident." Hsu Wei-yuan said confidently that although at the beginning their resources were not comparable to those abroad, this system currently leads the world, and research and development will not stop there. They will continue to strengthen existing functions and update data, so that the Deep Sea 9 system can secure a maritime advantage for Taiwan.

Anastatus wasps take on the litchi stink bug, clearing abandoned orchards and lowering the hatching rate

The Excellence in Grassroots Work Award in the Socio-Economic Development category went to the Bee God List team from the Miaoli District Agricultural Research and Extension Station. To address the rampant damage caused by the litchi stink bug in recent years, the research team released Anastatus wasps during the litchi stink bug's egg-laying period, causing them to parasitize the surface of the litchi stink bug's eggs. A statistical evaluation of the control results found that the hatching rate could be reduced by 70-80%.

"At present, about 14,000 wasps per hectare are needed to have a control effect." Wu Yihui, assistant researcher at the Miaoli District Agricultural Research and Extension Station, said that this year, together with technology transfer manufacturers, a total of 14 million wasps were released. At present, the main litchi and longan production areas and counties and cities have come to inquire about their use, mainly applying them by drone in cleared abandoned orchards, and some organic farmers have also come to inquire.

Wu Yihui believes that the high cost of parasitic wasps is also a problem that needs to continue to be solved. The Miaoli District Agricultural Research and Extension Station has already developed an automatic egg-sticking machine, reducing the manpower needed for mass production by 90%, and through refrigeration technology, Anastatus wasps can be stored for 5 months, easing production pressure. At present, the price of Anastatus wasps is about 1 yuan each, but it is hoped that once the quantity is large enough in the future, the cost can fall further.

It is rice and also a weed: removing red rice to maintain rice quality

The winner of the Collective Effort Award in the Environmental Sustainability category is the Weedy Red Rice Tracking Team. Wu Donghong, associate researcher in the Crop Division of the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, used molecular geographic tracking technology to identify hotspots where weedy red rice occurs, establish demonstration control areas, and hold training sessions on control measures, clearing seed banks, blocking the reproduction cycle and mechanical spread, and improving the quality of domestic rice.

"Weedy red rice is both rice and a weed." Wu Donghong said that in recent years, highly mechanized and labor-saving production, as well as the spread of seedlings, have caused red rice to spread rapidly across Taiwan. Even in rice fields of excellent varieties, if more than 0.4% is mixed in across the field, rice quality will drop by 10%. Converted into actual returns, 300 hectares of rice fields mixed with red rice would lose 11 million yuan.

Through a nationwide survey, Wu Donghong identified the hotspots of red rice across Taiwan. "(We) will teach farmers how to identify it by the appearance of volunteer seedlings." Farmers are taught to identify and pull it out in the field, and to communicate with seedling producers at the source, increasing the renewal rate of qualified rice seeds in nurseries and reducing the situation of mixed red rice.

20 years creating Taiwan's edamame miracle, next year challenging domestic and export sales records

The only winner of the Outstanding Achievement Award this time is the edamame industry team,known as "Mr. Edamame"