40 Years of Weed Management: Chiang Yung-cheng of the Agricultural Chemicals and Toxic Substances Research Institute Retires but Stays Active, Sharing Her Wisdom

"From when I started working to when I retired, forty years of my youth were spent dealing with weeds." Chiang Yung-cheng, head of the Pesticide Application Division at the Agricultural Chemicals and Toxic Substances Research Institute, stepped down from her post in July this year, but her connection with weeds is not over yet. After retirement, farmers and community groups from all over still enthusiastically invite her to give talks about weeds. In the hearts of farmers, Chiang Yung-cheng is truly the "Weed Queen."

A Farm Girl Arrives at the Agricultural Chemicals and Toxic Substances Research Institute, Devoting 40 Years of Her Youth to Weeds

In the past, weeds in the fields were often seen by farmers as thorns in their side - troublesome characters that hindered crop growth and stole nutrients. Now, with the emergence of organic and natural farming methods, the model of grass-based cultivation where crops and weeds coexist has gradually come to the fore. Chiang Yung-cheng's research career has witnessed the entire process of weeds going from being utterly detestable to being accepted.

Looking back on her educational journey, Chiang Yung-cheng studied from the Department of Agronomy at National Chung Hsing University all the way through to the Graduate Institute of Agronomy. She was 25 when she graduated, and in the prime of her youth, she had originally planned to rest for a while after completing her master's degree. "But unexpectedly, when I handed my thesis to my professor, he immediately asked if I wanted to work at the Agricultural Chemicals and Toxic Substances Research Institute." So on August 1, 1980, Chiang Yung-cheng joined the institute as a project assistant, and that position lasted 40 years.

At the time, the Agricultural Chemicals and Toxic Substances Research Institute was not yet called that. "Back then it was called the Taiwan Plant Protection Center, and it was only officially restructured into the Agricultural Chemicals and Toxic Substances Research Institute in 1985." She specialized in plant physiology in the Department of Agronomy, studying how to improve crop yield and quality, and the department she joined was also the Plant Physiology Division, but her research focus was weed control and herbicide application. In her 10th year on the job, she returned to her alma mater to pursue a doctorate, earning a PhD in Agronomy from National Chung Hsing University through in-service study.

Because her name sounds gender-neutral, Chiang Yung-cheng was mistaken for a boy before she even entered university. "My classmate