How to grow pesticide-free tomatoes? Agriculture graduate Liu Yuchang's family-and-friends cultivation

Last September, Liu Yu-chang boarded a southbound train, leaving his old home in Heping Island, Keelung, and leaving the National Taiwan University Graduate Institute of Horticulture right after graduation, to settle in Qishan, Kaohsiung and begin the first job of his life: a farmer growing pesticide-free tomatoes.

Farming: Going Back to the Fields Feels Right

Dream: Working Alongside Those Before Him for an Organic Farming Island

From now until mid-March, Liu Yu-chang's pesticide-free tomatoes are being harvested one after another. He grows two varieties, Chengmi Xiang and Hong Xinniang, with an expected yield of 1,000 jin. His sales method is "one box of five jin for 700 yuan including shipping." When a reporter asked how he set the price, he laughed and said, "Tomatoes on the market right now range from 50 to 200 yuan per jin. Add the high price and the low price together and divide by two, and that's my price."

As for the future, Liu Yu-chang says with certainty: "Many teachers, seniors and fellow alumni are working hard for organic farming. I hope I can become one of them and keep walking that road just as they do. I believe that with Taiwan, China's agricultural technology, there will surely come a day when all farming can be turned organic."

(Liu Yu-chang's tomato hotline: 0921840523, [email protected])