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Fixing Your Own Farm Machinery Becomes a Trend: Small Farm Machinery Classes Help Farmers Take Back Control of Farming

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"Black-Handed Farmers" Are Catching On! Fix Your Own Farm Machinery, Small Farm Machinery Classes Set Off a Trend, Take Back Control of Farming

When a car breaks down you take it to a garage, when a motorcycle breaks down you take it to a motorcycle shop, so where should you take broken farm machinery? Most farmers send faulty farm machinery to a farm machinery shop, but repairs often take several days and cost at least a thousand yuan and up. With seasonal farm work about to be delayed, farmers can only pace about like ants on a hot pan.

But farmers in Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung are in luck! Since 2009, five community colleges in southern Taiwan have launched "Small Farm Machinery Maintenance and Improvement Courses" (hereafter "small farm machinery classes"), and this year marks the 12th year.

From the first at Zengwen Community College to the newly opened class at Xinhua Community College in early September this year, the "small farm machinery classes" have successfully set off a wave of "black-handed farmers," and by now have drawn over a thousand farmer registrations eager to attend.

From now on, farmers fixing their own farm machinery is not just a trend, it also lets farmers take back control of their farming!

A farmer's hands can farm and also repair farm machinery (photo / Li Huiyi)

Xinhua Community College Opens a New Class: Farm Machinery as the Medium, Zero Barriers to Interaction

On Saturday, September 5, sunlight poured down in golden beams through the Indian almond leaves, light-vented bulbuls and grey treepies chattered on the branches, and a gentle breeze blew... On the campus of Xiaoxin Elementary School in Tainan City, there was not a single elementary school student in sight, but under the seven large Indian almond trees at the gate gathered nearly twenty older kids and mature students. Everyone surrounded the white-haired teacher Chen Guanghui, chattering back and forth, and the class atmosphere was very lively.

Student A said: "Teacher, this machine won't start, what should we do?"

Chen Guanghui answered: "This may have gelled. In the future, after using the machine, remember to pour out the leftover fuel."

Student B said: "Teacher, can I borrow this four-stroke model to touch for a bit?"

Chen Guanghui answered: "Of course! Try operating it yourself. More than a hundred years ago, Germans used this kind of model for teaching, and it is still done this way today."

This class is the first "small farm machinery class" offered by Xinhua Community College in Tainan City, with 19 registrants, most of them part-time farmers or weekend farmers.

This set of two-stroke, four-stroke and diesel engine models on the table is the theoretical teaching material for the small farm machinery class. (photo / Li Huiyi)

Su Yingyan, in his sixties, grows rice and miscellaneous grains. That day he specially brought his high-pressure sprayer to the site for everyone to "dissect" and study. He smiled and said, "This machine of mine is over twenty years old and hasn't been used for more than three years. Now it won't start, so I just brought it to class for the teacher to look at."

Under Chen Guanghui's guidance, everyone dismantled the farm machinery together, single-mindedly wanting only to fix it, and the interaction was very lively, not at all like meeting for the first time. Chen Guanghui said: "After we disassemble the parts and reassemble them, the sound when starting makes it seem like it is about to start successfully. The machine should not have any major problem. As long as we disassemble it again and clean it, it should be fine. It is probably just that the machine has not been used for too long, so of course it won't move!"

Wang Liwen, the course coordinator at Xinhua Community College, said the small farm machinery class is a course everyone has been looking forward to, but it is hard to find teachers. "Ordinary farm machinery shops can repair but not teach, and they fear that teaching farmers will hurt their business. In recent years, we have been looking for suitable teachers, until Pingbei Community College introduced us to Teacher Chen, and the class finally opened."

The newly opened small farm machinery class at Xinhua Community College; the person in the blue work clothes in the middle is teacher Chen Guanghui. (photo / Li Huiyi)

Faulty Farm Machinery Becomes Ready-Made Teaching Material: The Teacher Is Determined to Take Students Apart to the Bone Until They Master It

Pingbei Community College in Pingtung County currently has ten agriculture-related courses and is a typical rural community college. In the spring of 2014, Chen Guanghui was invited by Pingbei Community College to formally open a class and teach students, and this year marks the 7th year. The evening of September 4 was the first class of the fall semester for the small farm machinery class at Pingbei Community College.

Zhu Yongtai, who normally lives in downtown Kaohsiung and grows guavas in Tianliao, said he signed up as a student because he had heard of the class and has already taken it for two years. He said: "In the past, when I was halfway through spraying pesticide and the sprayer broke, I could only send it to a farm machinery shop, and I did not know how long the repair would take or how much it would cost, and I would only be notified when the shop had fixed it. Since taking the class, I can bring faulty farm machinery to class to study and repair it together with the teacher and classmates."

Generally speaking, all machinery other than large farm machinery such as tractors and harvesters is classified as small and medium farm machinery, and it is also the main subject taught in the community college courses, such as lawn mowers, sprayers (machines), chain saws, cultivators, water pumps, or single-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines.

Dissecting the machine body; Teacher Chen says it is fine to take it apart to the bone. (photo / Li Huiyi)

In every class, students take the initiative and go to their places. Those who bring faulty farm machinery first put it on the table, and other students stand next to the machinery they want to study in depth, following the teacher in disassembling it. In a normal class, three or four discussion and teaching groups usually form.

Chen Guanghui, a 78-year-old teacher, is busier than a butterfly gathering nectar, moving among the groups to demonstrate and explain. "To learn how to repair farm machinery, theory is the foundation of practice. Knowing theory alone is useless, so in class you must actually do hands-on work. Only then can farmers be able to repair farm machinery themselves and remove obstacles to farming." As he spoke, Chen Guanghui was full of energy.

Pointing to the half-disassembled sprayer, Zhu Yongtai said: "The sprayer I brought today sprays very poorly. If a farm machinery shop repaired it, no matter what, they would just directly replace the carburetor, but the teacher judged that it should be a worn gasket causing the oil leak." Chen Guanghui added from the side, "Take it apart as much as you can, as much as you can. It is fine to take it apart to the bone. The more thoroughly you disassemble it, the more deeply you can study it. Understanding the machine inside and out is what matters most!"

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