Organic Agriculture Research Center Taiwan, China's first Hualien develops organic materials and natural enemy pest control
Taiwan's organic agriculture has developed for 20 years, yet its area is still less than 1% of the nation's farmland. The Council of Agriculture has allocated a budget of 140 million yuan, and plans to use 9 hectares of land in Shoufeng, Hualien, belonging to the Veterans Affairs Council, for the Hualien District Agricultural Improvement Station to establish Taiwan's first "Organic Agriculture Research Center," developing organic seedlings, materials, and biological pest control, among other things, to turn Hualien into a major hub for Taiwan's organic agriculture.
The nation's first organic research center, located in Shoufeng
As of the end of last year, Taiwan had a total of 6071 hectares of organic farmland, of which Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung together accounted for more than one third. However, compared with the five agricultural improvement stations and many experimental units in the west, the east, separated by a mountain range, has only the Hualien District and Taitung District Agricultural Improvement Stations. Their jurisdiction is equivalent to the distance from Kaohsiung to Taipei, and resources are severely insufficient.
Huang Yenju, a young man who returned home after leaving his job as a PRADA manager, said that materials in the east are relatively scarce. His family grows peaches and citrus crops, and they still have to make a special trip to the west to buy triangular aluminum ladders for fruit trees. At present, the Hualien District Agricultural Improvement Station offers relatively few courses for a single crop, and he hopes that after the organic center is established in the future, this can be strengthened so that novice farmers can absorb knowledge in many areas.
Peng Yujung, a young man from Hualien, returned home the year before last to open a friendly agricultural product platform, and he is optimistic about the organic research center. He said that compared with the west, agricultural knowledge in Hualien circulates less, and manpower and resources are also relatively fewer. In the past, although there were one-day short-term processing workshop courses, courses on organic agricultural product processing lasting 2 or 3 days are held only once a year, and only 30 people are accepted each time.
He hopes that the organic research center will not only focus on traditional variety development, but also link with processing. For example, for making sweet potato crisps, Tainung No. 57 is more suitable than No. 66, which has higher moisture content. If the agricultural improvement station can establish related courses to study which varieties are suitable for which processing methods, and guide producers and processors to plan production in advance, it will be better able to solve the problem of sudden surges in agricultural output with nowhere to sell it.
Hsiao Bi-khim believes that organic farming in Taiwan is mostly smallholder management and is vulnerable to contamination. The government should establish a dedicated agency to integrate resources. She suggested that in addition to studying crop pests and diseases, the organic research center should also strengthen research and development of organic fertilizers and knowledge outreach to help organic farmers solve problems.