Strawberries Grown with Reduced Pesticides Are More Productive and Higher Quality: A Major Technical Breakthrough by Miaoli Farmers
Strawberries are an important cash crop in the Miaoli area and the star of the local agritourism and leisure industry, supporting NT$1.8 billion in business opportunities every year. However, strawberries are delicate and pampered, and have always been a "disaster zone" for pesticide use. But organic strawberries have too high a threshold, making them hard for ordinary farmers to accept. Must strawberries only be associated with pesticides?
Not at all! In fact, conventionally grown strawberries can also embark on a smooth path toward non-toxic, reduced-pesticide cultivation. Whether it is building rain shelters during seedling propagation, adopting IPM integrated management, or switching to microbial control, experts have already developed many effective methods that both safeguard farmers' health and avoid sacrificing strawberry quality and yield. Multiple farmers in the Miaoli area have already proven through firsthand experience that strawberries can be grown with fewer pesticides and greater peace of mind!
Building Rain Shelters for Strawberry Seedlings to Eradicate Pathogens from the Propagation Stage
Strawberries are a key crop for the Biological Control Branch Station of the Miaoli District Agricultural Research and Extension Station. Branch Station Director Chung Pei-che points out that there are about 500 hectares of strawberry fields nationwide. Estimating at 5,000 strawberry seedlings per 0.1 hectare, 25.3 million seedlings are needed each year. Since there are no professional strawberry seedling nurseries in the country, most seedling growers are farmers themselves.
The strawberry seedling propagation period lasts as long as 6 months (April to September each year), making the plants highly susceptible to fungal diseases such as anthracnose. Because sprinkler irrigation is used for watering during the propagation period, spores easily splash and spread with water droplets, increasing the transmission rate of latent fungal diseases. In the past, farmers routinely used chemicals such as difenoconazole or fluazinam, applying them on average once every three days, which was not only costly but also harmful to health.
After years of research, the Miaoli District Agricultural Research and Extension Station concluded that strawberry seedling propagation must change from the past open-air, sprinkler-irrigated model to reduce the chance of pathogen spores splashing from rain or irrigation water. Chung Pei-che stated that in addition to moving seedling propagation into rain-shelter facilities, using non-woven fabric drip tape for individual plant watering means that even if several plants become diseased, the pathogens will not spread significantly.
Farmer Fan Yun-ta switched last year to the watering method recommended by the Miaoli District Agricultural Research and Extension Station and also built a rain shelter for his strawberry seedlings. The results were truly astonishing. "The difference is just too big. My pesticide use is probably down to only one-fifth of what it was," Fan Yun-ta said. There is no income during the seedling propagation period, so saving on any cost is important. Besides saving him NT$40,000 to NT$50,000 in pesticide costs, the new method also raised his seedling survival rate. "In the past, even with a bunch of pesticides recommended by the agricultural supply store, about 30% of the seedlings would still die. Now 90% of my strawberry seedlings are healthy and thriving. The difference is just too big." He praised it repeatedly.
