Chen Wenyu: Agriculture is the foundation of a nation; a car cannot be exchanged for a sweet potato
Editor's note: Mr. Chen Wen-Yu of Known-You Seed passed away on December 7, 2012. This altruistic agricultural innovator held many distinctive views on agriculture. This article is a 2008 interview with Mr. Chen Wen-Yu. For more in-depth reading on Chen Wen-Yu, please click here.
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Oral account by Mr. Chen Wen-Yu. Interview compiled by Wang Wen-Hao
Every country in the world finds this a headache, and so does Japan; they too agonize over how agriculture can survive. Agriculture itself provides the food that sustains life, and farmers themselves should have a proud heart in order to do agriculture well. As for those in power, there is much that can be improved in how they enable farmers to make a living.
What I can speak to is the horticultural crops side. I believe what the government needs to do is think about how to keep young people in rural villages. At this stage the most miserable thing about agriculture is that it is all elderly people who stay behind; if they pass away, agriculture will be finished too. So the government must get young people to value agriculture, and how to keep youth in rural villages is very important.
Agricultural production is the foundation
Most of the Council of Agriculture's "Drift Bird" program is about tourism agriculture and the leisure industry, not real agricultural production. In the future, making agricultural production easier is possible with new technology, but the government must help raise agricultural knowledge: which crops and products sell best on the market at the best prices, letting them know, and what new varieties can be used for that production plan. When making production plans, the government absolutely must get the information through to the farmers.
To raise agricultural profits, produce what others don't have, that is, what others don't have at this time, the varieties others don't have, and the quality others don't have. Finally, on the sales side, be more distinctive than others.
So young people must be brought back to the rural villages; otherwise, after these elderly people are gone, Taiwan's agriculture will be lost.
Rural villages need their own publications Let farmers hold a pen as well as a hoe
Rural villages themselves need a culture. What is rural culture? It is that rural villages need their own publications. At present, farmers' associations or county governments have their own publications reporting, but these are all voices promoting politics, not truly the farmers' own publications. Farmers should write things themselves, write about their own lives, write poetry, anything, write their own culture. Farmers can hold not only a hoe but also a pen.
In addition, the living environment of rural villages must be improved and beautified, such as the living environment and the eating environment, so that rural life is not inferior to the city. Japan has achieved this: everywhere is green, and when city people drive over they feel, how can the countryside be so beautiful, and city people want to go there and spend money.
Otherwise, farmers now plant whatever they see others planting, and when others' prices fall, their prices fall; they have no subject of their own.
I wanted to develop rural culture several years ago. The government probably needs more budget so that rural villages have the charm to keep young people staying. In the past, sowing and raising seedlings all had to be done by oneself; now there is division of labor, and agriculture is no longer so bitter.
Suggestions for reforming farmers' associations
At present Taiwan has three levels: provincial farmers' associations - county farmers' associations - township farmers' associations. I think county farmers' associations can be done away with, because county farmers' associations do not have much effect. Farmers' associations themselves should have a production and management technology department for specialized research; retired government agricultural personnel can come here to help.
Farmers' associations should have an agricultural product sales department for specialized research on sales, using retired people from existing agricultural units to do it. In addition, the manufacture and improvement of agricultural materials that farmers use, such as pesticides and fertilizers, can be produced and made by themselves. Japan now has no county farmers' associations, but rather a national farmers' association, concentrating resources to do research.
Agriculture is the foundation of the nation One car cannot be exchanged for one sweet potato
Agriculture supplies our food. If something happens, one car cannot be exchanged for one sweet potato; agriculture absolutely must exist.
Farmers fear the blow of the WTO. With agricultural products coming from outside, Japan is the same; Japan's agricultural conditions are the same as Taiwan's: small farmers and refined agriculture. Most imported products are resistant to transport and storage; fresh food still has to be produced by ourselves. In addition, the safety of agriculture is most important. With pesticide residues from outside, the Council of Agriculture now wants to promote traceability sheets, which can be better controlled in Taiwan. Although theirs are cheap, ours are safe and of good quality.
If you rely on selling land to make money, you are not a farmer, and it is not good for agricultural development. My idea is that I don't buy stocks and don't buy land to make money; that contributes nothing at all to society. (This interview took place in March 2008)