Wax Apple's Ruthless Flower Forcing 01"An organophosphate insecticide banned by the EU, used in Taiwan to force flowering? Ten times the concentration of toxic mist drifting everywhere, environmental pollution beyond estimation

General News Jan 1, 1970 0 views

Wax Apple's Ruthless Flower Forcing 01"An organophosphate insecticide banned by the EU, used in Taiwan, China to force flowering? Ten times the concentration of toxic mist drifting everywhere, environmental pollution beyond estimation

0Share

A pesticide the EU is about to ban, yet Taiwan, China uses it to force wax apples to flower? The domestic wax apple industry routinely uses organophosphate insecticides such as chlorpyrifos and fenitrothion to force flowering, and at concentrations many times higher than when used for pest control. The "tree-washing" spraying method not only directly affects farmers' health but also seriously threatens the ecological environment, and it does not comply with wax apple pesticide regulations at all.

Organophosphates are a highly toxic class of pesticides, and chlorpyrifos is especially controversial internationally; the EU has decided to ban it this year. However, the wax apple industry in our country has been using organophosphate agents to force flowering for more than forty years, and farmers are deeply dependent on it. Not only do local farmers' associations openly teach the spraying method for flower-forcing agents, but agricultural authorities have also tacitly allowed it for years.

What everyone knows without saying is: wax apples have no legal flower-forcing pesticide. But to ensure a harvest, everyone sprays; not spraying feels unsafe. Yet the ones most seriously harmed by this practice are the farmers themselves.

The rosy, plump winter wax apples mostly rest on a foundation of improper flower forcing (photo_ Cai Jiashan)

Ten times the concentration of toxic mist drifting everywhere, farmers bear the brunt, environmental pollution beyond estimation

Every year from July to November is the pesticide flower-forcing period for wax apples. Farmers bring out the insecticidal fenitrothion or chlorpyrifos, but unlike pest control, where it is diluted 1000 to 2000 times, flower-forcing agents must be more concentrated, with the strongest dilution being only 200 times, equivalent to ten times the usual concentration. Only in this way can it "stimulate" the fruit trees, causing old leaves to drop, prompting new leaves to grow, and triggering flower buds to sprout.

A Pingtung farmer whose fields are surrounded by wax apple orchards on both sides complained that during this period neighboring fields spray pesticide nonstop, because flower forcing is not done just once, and the highly concentrated toxic mist drifts everywhere, causing ecological devastation. All the insects die off completely, not to mention the possible contamination of his fields.

He also questioned: some wax apple orchards are right next to schools and communities. With such concentrated pesticide drifting everywhere, what impact will it have on children and residents? Let alone the farmers themselves, who bear the brunt.

Aerial photo of Qiangyuan Elementary School, showing the very short distance between the campus and the wax apple orchards

"Two fen of land used up three cans of chlorpyrifos, sprayed twice within a few days. If we keep spraying like this, how can we do IPM (note 1)? How can we do biological control?" he said angrily, pointing out that this old habit of "ruthlessly destroying flowers" runs completely counter to current policy direction.

Although the wax apple industry generally believes that this flower-forcing method is unlikely to cause final pesticide residues, because from bud sprouting to fruit harvest still takes three to four months. But this farmer has observed that some wax apple orchards are "traditional type" and spray pesticide several times. The fruit trees are flowering while already bearing small fruits; if pesticide is sprayed at this time, how can it be ensured that it will not remain on the fruit?

Low food safety risk, but farmers are exposed to high concentrations

To understand the situation of organophosphate residues on fruit, "Upstream and Downstream" obtained two wax apple samples from a Pingtung wax apple orchard that had been sprayed with chlorpyrifos to force flowering, and sent them to Tandem Labs for a 373-item pesticide residue test.

The results found: the two samples had four and six pesticide residues respectively, both including chlorpyrifos, at 0.03 ppm and 0.05 ppm respectively, but below the allowable pesticide residue limit for wax apples of 1 ppm. Analyzing the reason, because chlorpyrifos is a non-systemic pesticide, it must come into contact to leave residue, and wax apple fruits grow only after flower forcing, so they did not come into contact with the pesticide. If spraying is done at the small-fruit stage, as long as bagging is used, there is also relatively little contact with chlorpyrifos.

Therefore farmers generally believe that flower-forcing pesticide is unlikely to remain on the fruit, and there is no food safety concern. But farmers may not realize that when they spray ten times the concentration of flower-forcing pesticide, their whole-body exposure may far exceed the acceptable daily intake per person.

Why do wax apples use insecticide to force flowering? A "beautiful misunderstanding" more than forty years ago

Fruit flower forcing mostly uses growth regulators, so why do wax apple farmers use insecticides to force flowering?

This must go back to a "beautiful misunderstanding" before Year 63 of the Republic of China. According to an interview by sociologist Yang Hongren in the book "How Communities Mobilize: Factions, Local Masters, and Comprehensive Community Building in the Hometown of Black Pearls," Wang Denan, then head of the Fruit Tree Division at the Fengshan Tropical Horticultural Experiment Branch of the Agricultural Research Institute, recalled:

"At that time, a farmer in Neipu Township had some pesticide left over after spraying his rice field. He thought it would be a pity to throw it away, and since the rice field was right next to a wax apple orchard, he sprayed the leftover pesticide onto the wax apple trees. Who knew it would be such a coincidence: quite a few leaves dropped from the wax apple trees, but the wax apples flowered slightly earlier. Not only was the flowering time more uniform, the quantity was also greater than before."

This pesticide was the insecticide fenitrothion (farmers often call it directly by the brand name "Sumithion"). Being able to force early flowers meant seizing a sales advantage, so this trick of pesticide flower forcing spread by word of mouth and became a well-known must-use skill for growing wax apples.

The technological evolution of wax apple flower forcing is truly a brilliant chapter in Taiwan, China's agricultural history, representing the culmination of grassroots wisdom. After pesticide spraying for flower forcing, farmers successively developed diverse techniques such as girdling, water immersion, root cutting, close pruning, and black netting, shifting from summer fruit production to winter fruit. Winter-produced wax apples are redder in color and more profitable, and the cultivation area has grown vigorously ever since.

Water immersion is also one of the flower-forcing methods (image provided_ Lai Rongmao)

The final shot in the chain tactics of flower forcing: spraying high-concentration insecticide

Thus the flowering and fruiting time of wax apples was advanced by a full six months. Today most consumers think wax apples are originally harvested in winter, unaware that this is a man-made green miracle.

In order to overturn nature, farmers use every trick to suppress the wax apple trees: covering with black nets to block photosynthesis, ring barking to cut off water transport, close pruning to remove all leaf nutrient supply, and water immersion to make the root system struggle to breathe... These various "adversities" are meant to give the fruit trees a sense of crisis and make them want to reproduce. In agricultural terms, this is forcing the fruit trees to shift from vegetative growth to reproductive growth, in order to "regulate the production period."

Although flower-forcing techniques have continually evolved, pesticide flower forcing, as the origin, has never been abandoned. After "preparations before flower forcing" such as covering with black nets, water immersion, girdling, and root cutting (note 2), when the nets are opened, it still has to be given "a shot," that is, spraying a round of thick insecticide. Farmers believe this is the only way to make the fruit trees "get moving."

Close pruning (image provided_ Lai Rongmao)

Spraying pesticide to force flowering is illegal, but the industry treats it as normal

Wax apple farmers have sprayed pesticide to force flowering for years, and the whole industry treats it as normal. One fruit farmer surnamed Zheng said, "Without spraying pesticide to force flowering, farmers can't eat or sleep," because a whole year's harvest cannot be gambled away. Another farmer surnamed Luo put it more directly: "If we don't spray, we'll be drinking the northwest wind!"

A reporter also called the Fangliao Farmers' Association saying they wanted to buy flower-forcing pesticide, and the service staff generously taught: use fenitrothion the first time, then spray "Dursban" (chlorpyrifos) five days later.

Huang Jinliang, chairman of the Taiwan, China Wax Apple Industry Development Association, explained that farmers used to use fenitrothion because it was cheaper, but later experts said the cheaper pesticide might have poorer solvents and more easily cause phytotoxicity, so many people switched to chlorpyrifos, and some used both. If a cold wave hits, fenitrothion has poorer stability and the leaves will all drop. With chlorpyrifos, the same concentration will not cause phytotoxicity.

However, fenitrothion is not on the recommended pesticide list for wax apples at all; using it is illegal. And chlorpyrifos on wax apples can only be used against mealybugs, with no flower-forcing item.