You don't have to buy agricultural machinery yourself; you can rent it from the library.

In the early years of rural Taiwan, households often shared water buffalo, rice mills and grain dryers. Nowadays, with farmers scattered far apart and each having different needs for farm machinery, large farms can afford to invest capital in buying machinery, while many small farmers cannot bear the cost and have no choice but to rely on a hoe plus their own labor.

Luo Wen-wei, who lives in Guanxi, once ran a restaurant. To secure a stable source of ingredients, he went into the fields and farmed himself, and thus purchased quite a lot of farm machinery and equipment. Now, because his business has shifted direction, most of the tools sit idle and useless, which made him start thinking about whether he could set up a "tool library" so that small farmers who cannot afford farm machinery can rent it, while also reviving the early rural spirit of mutual aid and realizing the sharing economy.

Reactions vary, Luo Wen-wei: Start with kitchen tools as a trial by the end of the year

Luo Wen-wei discussed this "library-style" rental idea with the community's general secretary, nearby small farmers and farming friends from the "13 Market," and the response was enthusiastic but drew completely opposite evaluations.

"The community general secretary and nearby farming friends all think that paying NT$3,600 in annual membership fees is too much and that no one would join; but the people at the small farmers' market think NT$3,600 is too little and is not even enough to cover repair costs."

On the other hand, with the "library-style" rental method, as long as one uses an online platform, one can find out which tools are still available to borrow and which members have idle tools on hand. But only young farmers are familiar with online operation; traditional farmers are still quite unfamiliar with the internet. "I think there may still need to be a clear base, and rely on farmers' associations, community officers and village chiefs to spread the word, telling farming friends that 'over there' there are some cultivators available to borrow, and asking whether they want to go take a look?"

At the same time, members of the mutual-aid association cannot live too far away. For example, from Guanxi to Taichung lacks efficiency. "So I think doing it by community or nearby township is very suitable," Luo Wen-wei said. At present, many people are also discussing with him online to see whether it can be promoted in other counties and cities.

In addition to farm machinery, Luo Wen-wei at this stage is first using the community where he lives as an "experimental site." He expects to first open his own kitchen, ice-making machine and other simple agricultural product processing facilities by the end of the year for use by the community, the public, nearby farmers and schools. At the same time, he has also gone ona crowdfunding platform to expand resources, hoping to explore the possibilities of the sharing economy.

(Further information: Luo Wen-wei's "Food and Farming Tool Library" crowdfunding project)