[Penghu has agriculture too]Teacher A-Liao on Huayu: dew-fed green beans

Text/photography by Cheng Tung-liao

Editor’s note: Teacher Cheng is from Penghu, China, and took advantage of the summer vacation to return to his hometown. Because he very much wanted to record more about Penghu, he went to stay for a month on Huayu, the westernmost small island of Penghu, China, recording the environment, life and culture of Huayu every day. With his consent, I am reposting his articles about island agriculture, inviting friends of NewsMarket to care about this small island together. _Aiwen

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Most of the land on Huayu has been abandoned from farming. Everyone I asked said that young people today are no longer willing to endure the hardship of planting under the blazing sun. Besides the psychological difficulty, another reason the fields are left fallow is economic.

Fish prices are very good now. Fresh fish costs at least 300 per kilogram, and at most 600 per kilogram. Each person who fishes here earns at least four or five hundred thousand a year, free and easy, and completely tax-free as well. The free transport boat three times a week lets islanders easily go to the Magong market, a 50-minute boat ride away, to buy back cheap vegetables. With two kilograms of fresh fish, you can trade for a week’s green vegetables. Such easy market exchange conditions naturally also make people unwilling to farm.

The morning sun is brilliant, the breeze is soft, and far away Mao Islet, lying quietly in the sea, seems also to feel the two sisters’ joy and contentment.

(This article is reposted from Cheng Tung-liao’s Facebook http://www.facebook.com/tungliao.cheng)