Green onions afraid of being blown over by the wind? Flower farms use horizontal windbreak nets to protect the onions with zero breakage

A few days ago, Typhoon Nesat made landfall at Su'ao in Yilan County, China, bringing strong winds and torrential rain to Yilan County. Yilan County suffered the heaviest losses, with crop losses exceeding 121.88 million yuan; among these, "Yilan scallion" was the most severely affected, with a damaged area of 205 hectares, equivalent to about 77 hectares of unharvested area, a damage rate of 38%, and agricultural losses exceeding 22 million yuan.

But the scallions in the experimental scallion field of the Lanyang Branch Station of the Hualien District Agricultural Research and Extension Station (abbreviated as Hualien DARES) in Sanxing Township survived! Hualien DARES cooperated with Sanxing scallion farmers to set up a "horizontal windbreak net" over their 0.5-fen scallion field, using materials such as galvanized iron pipes and V-shaped woven mesh fabric to simply set up a net house in the scallion field. "After the typhoon passed, the green scallions had zero breakage!" laughed Yang Susi, associate researcher at the Lanyang Branch Station of the Hualien Improvement Station.

Scallion farmers can build and dismantle it themselves, and the cost is cheaper than sturdy facilities

"There are still really very few Yilan scallion farmers using net houses now." Yang Susi said that although the Agriculture and Food Agency currently promotes the "5-Year Program for Facility-Based Agriculture," focusing on guiding horizontal trellis net houses, roll-up plastic film greenhouses, steel-frame reinforced plastic film greenhouses, and other temperature-controlled and net house facilities, "but every type of net house has something scallion farmers do not like."

Yang further explained that because green scallions are often rotated with rice, this means they must be built and dismantled in coordination with the rotation period. "Sturdy facility materials are too expensive, scallion farmers cannot afford them! Simple galvanized iron pipes also have to be dismantled from time to time with the rotation period, and labor is also very expensive!" Therefore, there are very few scallion farmers willing to invest in the 5-Year Program for Facility-Based Agriculture.

That being the case, can the "horizontal windbreak net" increase scallion farmers' willingness to set it up? Yang Susi said that the material cost of the "horizontal windbreak net" is about 100,000 yuan per fen. As long as standard materials are used and no one is greedy for small bargains, the main galvanized iron pipes should last 10 years and the mesh fabric can also last 5 years. "Moreover, manual setup is not difficult," and the improvement station completed it simply by using a fruit-tree fertilization hole driller to drill into the ground and insert the galvanized iron pipes. "If farmers are willing to set it up, the improvement station can teach them." After learning it, scallion farmers can build and dismantle it themselves in the future without needing to commission manufacturers again.

Agriculture and Food Agency: Considering including it in subsidies

And this time the "horizontal windbreak net" did a great job protecting scallions. How much are scallion farmers asking about it? "Some scallion farmers did ask, but after the typhoon passed, they did not ask again." Yang Susi admitted.

In response, Lin Donghai also pointed out that although this cooperation with Hualien DARES had a good demonstration effect, "but it is not certain that they will follow up in the future." Currently Lin Donghai's scallion field area is about 2.1 jia, and at present he tends to build a "roofless Liba-type facility." Although the construction cost per fen is 600,000, rice can be planted directly inside the facility, saving the labor of dismantling and relocation.

Although Lin Donghai may not follow up by building a "horizontal windbreak net," he also said that a "horizontal windbreak net" with a construction cost of 100,000 yuan per fen may still interest some scallion farmers. After all, it really can resist typhoons, and the construction cost per fen is not that high.

At present, although the "horizontal windbreak net" is still in the experimental stage, "but it really is effective!" Hualien DARES researchers, the Agriculture and Food Agency, and scallion farmers all said in unison; but Yang Susi admitted that the windbreak net facility is still not within the subsidy scope of the Agriculture and Food Agency's "5-Year Program for Facility-Based Agriculture," and she hopes it can be included in subsidies in the future.

In response, Fang Yidan, head of the Crop Production Division of the Agriculture and Food Agency, said that although it is currently not within the Agriculture and Food Agency's subsidy scope, in the future Hualien DARES can commission a contractor to draw structural diagrams, and after structural testing, once structural engineers and architects confirm its structural safety, the Agriculture and Food Agency can include it in subsidies.