2016 National Famous Rice Competition: Xiluo and Erlin Win Overall Championship, Proper Fertilization Is Key

The results of the 2016 "National Famous Rice Producing Area Championship" champion rice are out! The Siluo Township Farmers' Association in Yunlin County took the overall championship in the fragrant rice group; the overall champion in the non-fragrant rice group was the Erlin Township Farmers' Association in Changhua County; in addition, the Guanyin District Farmers' Association in Taoyuan City and the Daliao District Farmers' Association in Kaohsiung County also took the double variety championships in both the fragrant rice group and the non-fragrant rice group.

"The variety champions this year were distributed quite evenly, with farmers' associations across the north, central, south and east all winning awards," said Zhuang Laoda, director of the Central Branch of the Agriculture and Food Agency. This time, the overall champions in the fragrant rice group and the non-fragrant rice group fell to Yunlin and Changhua. These two counties and cities are irrigated by the Zhuoshui River, and the river water is rich in minerals. If rational fertilization is added on top of that, with both minerals and organic matter, the rice quality will be very good.

Yi-Hong, a farmer from Daliao, Kaohsiung, who has won the Top Ten Good Rice and champion famous rice awards for many consecutive years, said that farmer Chen Yihong said that the two varieties Kaohsiung 145 and Kaohsiung 147 are actually most afraid of too much nitrogen fertilizer, which affects crude protein content, "but because we use organic cultivation, we use very little nitrogen fertilizer." Liang Xinqi, an award-winning farmer from Guanyin District, also said that the most important thing is "applying fertilizer in small amounts and more frequently." By controlling the amount of fertilizer, the taste is also better.