A Sidelight on a Visit to "Watermelon King" Chen Wenyu: Rural Development Needs Its Own Culture
Editor's note: Mr. Chen Wen-yu of Known-You Seed passed away on December 7, 2012. This altruistic agricultural innovator held many unique views on agriculture. This article is a side note written by Qimei Community College after visiting Mr. Chen Wen-yu in 2007; the original text was excerpted and published in the June 1996 issue of [Country Road]. For more in-depth reading about Chen Wen-yu, please click here.
Text by Zhong Jing-sheng (then deputy director of Qishan District Community College, Kaohsiung County)
[Background information]:
In 2005, the Discovery Channel series "Taiwan Characters", produced in cooperation with the Government Information Office of the Executive Yuan, after an enthusiastic public voting and nomination process and continual discussion and confirmation by Global Views Monthly, finally selected six Taiwanese figures who, in different fields, were all worthy of representing Taiwan to the world. The six fields and the selected representatives were: A-mei (popular culture and entertainment), Liu Chin-piao (business and economics), Henry Lee (science and technology), Master Cheng Yen (social welfare and environmental protection), Lin Hwai-min (humanities and arts), and Chen Wen-yu (agricultural technology).
At the age of 82, Mr. Chen Wen-yu, honored as the "Watermelon King", was the leading figure in Taiwan's vegetable and fruit breeding. Over the past 60-plus years, of the 6 watermelon varieties worldwide selected for the All America Selections (AAS), 4 came from the 'Known-You Seed Company' founded by Chen Wen-yu, highlighting Mr. Chen Wen-yu's outstanding breeding research and development technology.
Chen Wen-yu's watermelons are marketed in more than 50 countries worldwide, and one quarter of the world's watermelon seeds come from Taiwan, with "Known-You Seed" being the main source of those seeds. Yet for him, "every seed is a responsibility", so he still continued working hard to develop new varieties, hoping that through his seeds the livelihoods of farmers around the world could continue to improve.
The variety named "Hua Bao", a large watermelon that can reach over 10-plus kilograms each, seedless watermelons, the Cherry Tomato variety "Shengnyu", the high-priced muskmelons named "Xiang Hua", "Honey World" and "Tian Hua", and seeds of many kinds of pumpkins were all bred by the "Known-You Seed Company" founded by Chen Wen-yu. To make his young grandson enjoy eating tomatoes, Chen Wen-yu bred the Shengnyu cherry tomato, which after being introduced to the United States set off a trend, with an annual output of 20 million kilograms, accounting for 50 percent of the US market for that type of tomato.
'Known-You Seed' currently has branch offices in Xiamen, Shanghai, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and other tropical regions of Southeast Asia, with its breeding technology and operational headquarters remaining in Taiwan, and production bases overseas, including Southeast Asia, the mainland, Italy and Denmark.
Chen Wen-yu: Agriculture is the most peaceful; farmers are the most honest and earn the least money
On March 15, 2007, staff of Qimei Community College, students enrolled in the "Agriculture and Rural Learning" course at Xinxing Community College, and farmers engaged in agricultural operations in the Qimei area arranged to visit the world-renowned "Watermelon King", Grandpa Chen Wen-yu. Had it not been for the introduction on the Discovery Channel program "Taiwan Characters", we, as Taiwanese, would never have known that such a celebrity lived in our neighborhood (in Kaotan Village, Renwu Township, Kaohsiung County). Perhaps because he was engaged in agriculture rather than high technology or entertainment, the fields that draw media attention, it was hard for ordinary people to notice him; in fact, this also illustrates the predicament facing "agriculture" today.
As we searched high and low and arrived at the "Fengshan Research Farm" of "Known-You Seed Company" in Renwu Township, what met our eyes were old buildings and a garden full of colorful vegetables, fruits and flowers. That amazed feeling of "discovering a whole new world" was the reward obtained after winding our way through the mechanical noise and foul air of the industrial zone. Before the hot southern sun had fully unleashed its scorching charm, the farm manager first led us to "admire the flowers and willows" among the various vegetables, fruits and flowers. Looking at the petunias all over the garden, some red, some white, some purple, some multicolored, as well as the sweet peppers of various colors, we realized that agricultural technology is in fact a high-tech industry in which humans cooperate with nature.
After touring the garden's spring splendor, we came to a simple meeting room to watch a presentation. The bright red, plump and juicy watermelon served by the staff made us momentarily forget whether it was actually summer or the early spring when it is warm yet still chilly. Grandpa Chen, smiling all over and of tall stature, came to join our discussion after finishing the company's morning meeting.
Grandpa Chen said right from the start that agriculture is the most peaceful; the qualities of farmers are honesty, hardship and earning the least money, but living under the big sun every day, they are the healthiest. He offered an observed phenomenon to illustrate the plainness of those engaged in agriculture. At the annual joint agricultural conference held once a year, agricultural operators and researchers from industry, government and academia gather together, and every time one sees that the suits many people wear are mostly old clothes more than several decades old, which shows that it is very hard to make big money through agricultural operations.
But the reward that farmers gain from the land is health. The plain, unadorned and friendly temperament seen in him makes it hard to associate him with an entrepreneur worth hundreds of millions, perhaps this is the restrained passion radiated by someone who has spent a lifetime in the company of land and crops.
(The original text was excerpted and published in [Country Road] Vol. 33, No. 6, June 1996 issue)