Taiwan, China Wheat Campus Cultivation Program Field Study Officially Kicks Off

Interview/ Jiang Hui-hsien  Lead image/ Adama

The farmer members of the Xiyuan Wheat Contract Farming Group and the National Teachers' Union General Federation are joining hands to do one thing for Taiwan's agriculture—

On 10/5 the two sides jointly announced that they will launch the Taiwan Wheat Campus "Wheat Field Study" Cultivation Program across Taiwan, so that Taiwan's children can, through their own little hands, experience the planting, growth, processing and use of local wheat!

"We want to call on caring educators, teachers and elementary school students across Taiwan to join this civic movement for local wheat and make it an experience that can be passed on," said Shi Ming-huang, general manager of the Xiyuan Bakery Workshop and initiator of the campaign, in an interview with NewsMarket at the very moment the campaign was announced.

Since Xiyuan began promoting the revival of local wheat in 2008, General Manager Shi's dream, through the joint efforts of many farmer friends, the Homemakers United Foundation and other groups, has seen the cultivated area increase year by year. This year, Xiyuan launched island-wide wheat contract farming, set the ambitious goal of "replacing one ten-thousandth of imported wheat volume," and at the same time reached an agreement on processing technology cooperation with Lien Hwa Industrial Corporation, Taiwan's largest flour milling plant, achieving major progress (please refer to Wang Wen-hao's report "Big Breakthrough! Lien Hwa and Xiyuan Wheat Create a New Situation").

And General Manager Shi, this dreamer, sees reality clearly, and sees even farther! He believes that "in advancing this civic movement for local wheat, children's food education cannot be ignored! But we do not want to do it through preaching; rather, we want the 'little interns' to learn about wheat farming together with farmer friends and teachers through hands-on participation. Moreover, not only do they learn by doing, the children can also directly contact, visit and make friends with the farmers, and accompany the farmer friends, rural villages and wheat fields as they grow together."

This campaign will seek teachers from 40 elementary schools nationwide to lead children in participating in hands-on observation of Taiwan wheat. Recruitment covers all regions across Taiwan; schools selected after review can interact with nearby Xiyuan wheat contract-farming friends, and participate in, observe and record the entire wheat growth process. Although urban elementary schools in Taipei City and New Taipei City cannot take part in farming nearby, General Manager Shi and the farmer friends have specially designed a "potted wheat" experience class for students; as long as there is a full-sun environment, they can likewise observe the process of wheat sprouting, flowering and heading.

Even more interesting, the campaign is designed to make learning fun. In addition to hands-on field work, the "Xiyuan Wheat Production Traceability System" will be opened to participating schools; teachers and students can form their own teams and upload their own wheat farming experience notes and photos, allowing schools to observe one another, compete (PK) and seek improvement; teachers can develop the entire hands-on process into lesson plans as teaching materials for inheritance and promotion. The wheat grown by the children can also be exchanged for Taiwan-grown wheat processed products of equal weight, such as noodles, bread, steamed buns and mantou, miancha (roasted flour tea), and so on.

At last, our children can have the chance to be close to real farming, real farmers and real rural villages; at last, elementary school teaching materials no longer have to remain stuck on the appearance of Taiwan's rural villages from decades ago. The little interns will participate in and witness this civic movement.

General Manager Shi's "Wheat Field Rhapsody" is being gradually realized, proving that "dreams can also have weight"!

Registration for the Taiwan Wheat Campus "Wheat Field Study" Cultivation Program is open from 10/5 to 10/18, and the campaign runs from November 1, 2011 to April 1, 2012. Schools and teachers are welcome to inquire with Ms. Yang Shang-hui of the National Teachers' Union General Federation, phone: 02-2585-7528 ext. 310 or 0982-939-525. Below are the detailed description of the campaign and the registration form.

Shi Ming-huang, general manager of the Xiyuan Bakery Workshop, proves that dreams can also have weight. Photo/ Guo Zhi-rong

An invitation from Xiyuan Wheat's "Wheat Field Rhapsody 5.0": The Weight of a Dream

Dreams can accumulate into concrete weight; after four years of effort, "Xiyuan Wheat," through island-wide exchanges among farmer friends, the establishment of production traceability and concerts that revitalize the agricultural scene, and a model of environmentally friendly contract farming, has broken through the difficulties of autumn-winter crop planting and processing, and has already shattered the agricultural myth that Taiwan is unsuitable for growing wheat. This autumn and winter "Xiyuan Wheat" is about to contract-farm 50 hectares of wheat fields, with an estimated output of 120 metric tons of wheat (one ten-thousandth of imports); the weight of this dream is full of romance and idealism for actually raising Taiwan's "food self-sufficiency rate."

"Food education is the most intimately relevant part of environmental education"; we warmly invite nearby elementary schools in the townships and towns of Taiwan's wheat-producing areas to jointly participate in this civic movement independently initiated and operated by ordinary citizens. Through teachers' professional hands-on practice in the teaching setting, observational learning and on-site study in wheat fields, students will not only become closer to agriculture and farmer friends, but children everywhere will also gain a further understanding of Taiwan's local wheat. Through actual farming experience of "local production, local consumption," they will understand the true meaning of shortening food miles.

We wholeheartedly welcome teacher friends interested in farming to join together with the warmth of shared passion to nurture and accomplish this beautiful dream. To this end we have also combined with the Homemakers United Foundation Consumer Cooperative and the three major flour mills of northern, central and southern Taiwan to jointly participate in collaborative observation and visits to downstream processing, so that education is integrated with local industrial resources. Finally, we especially look forward to the "Wheat Field Rhapsody 5.0" concert in March 2012, inviting everyone to share the achievements and joy of working together across the province!

* Program name: Taiwan Wheat Campus "Wheat Field Study" Cultivation Program
* Organizers: Xiyuan Wheat Contract Farming Group of Farmer Friends, National Teachers' Union General Federation
* Co-organizers: Homemakers United Foundation Consumer Cooperative locations, Lien Hwa Flour (northern), Chia Fa Flour (central), Uni-President Flour (southern)
* Program goal: Seek teachers from 40 elementary schools nationwide to lead children in participating in hands-on observation of Taiwan wheat.
* Counties, cities, townships: Yilan (Sanxing, Yuanshan), Miaoli (Yuanli), Taichung (Daya, Shengang), Changhua (Erlin, Fangyuan), Yunlin (Dounan), Chiayi (Dongshi), Tainan (Houbi, Xuejia), Kaohsiung (Meinong), Pingtung (Hengchun Kenting), Taitung (Chishang), Hualien (Fuli, Yuli, Shoufeng, Ji'an), New Taipei City, Taipei City.

* Registration dates: October 5, 2011 (Wed) - October 18, 2011 (Tue)
* Campaign dates: November 1, 2011 (Tue) - April 1, 2012 (Sun)

Campaign content: Wheat growth observation records (sowing, daily management, harvesting, sun-drying wheat), exploration of wheat history, visits to nearby milling or noodle-processing plants, instruction on operating the Xiyuan Wheat Production Traceability System.

* Site size: Any school ground from 1 sq m to 100 sq m, or planting pots if limited by the environment.
* Environmental requirements: Full sun.
* Tool requirements: Weeding sickles and gardening tools.
* Division of work: Xiyuan Bakery is responsible for providing wheat seeds, lesson plans, wheat fields across the province, arrangements for educational visits to flour mills and consultation on wheat field management.
* Teaching unit: Interact with farmer friends through daily observation and feedback (logged into the Xiyuan Wheat Production Traceability System).
* Harvest: Exchange for Taiwan-grown wheat processed products of equal weight (noodles, bread, steamed buns and mantou, miancha...)

* Feedback and results presentation:
Daily observation feedback can be shared through logging into the Xiyuan Wheat Production Traceability System.
After the campaign is completed, if you are willing to provide electronic materials related to lesson plans and results records for our reference, we will select suitable methods and channels to present them.

Registration contact: National Teachers' Union General Federation Secretary Yang Shang-hui
※Registration by fax: Please fill in the fields above, then fax to 02-2585-7559 and call to confirm.
※Registration by email: Please fill in the fields above, then email to [email protected], and we will reply by email to confirm.

Contact information: Ms. Yang Shang-hui, National Teachers' Union General Federation
Fax: 02-2585-7559 Email: [email protected]
Phone: 02-2585-7528 ext. 310 or 0982-939-525

About Taiwan wheat

"Wheat" is the king of all grains, with global annual output of about more than 580 million metric tons, and wide processing uses; together with rice it is one of the staple foods sustaining human survival. Taiwan's average annual imports from 2009-2011 were 1.18-1.23 million metric tons; imported wheat and rice consumption are comparable, and Taiwanese society must squarely face the fact of the existence of "dual staple foods."

For Taiwan wheat, in the traceable period of early ancestors crossing the sea to reclaim land (Mailiao, Yunlin), in the eighth year of the Taisho era under Japanese rule (1919), the Taiwan Governor-General's Office promoted wheat cultivation from Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi and along the Tainan coast; the cultivated area in each county and city (prefecture and subprefectures) ranged from 300 chia to 5,000 chia. After the war, Taiwan experienced a short-term food shortage, and the government encouraged farmers to widely plant miscellaneous crops, with wheat as an important crop. In 1954, riding the momentum of US aid, it promoted the "noodle food movement" through subsidized school lunches; in 1967 US wheat imports were officially opened; and during the 1970s the government, through the "bulk materials trade procurement mission," imported large quantities of wheat, corn and soybeans from the US to balance the Taiwan-US trade deficit, after which the cultivation of Taiwan wheat, corn and soybeans was suppressed.

In 1974 the cultivated area was only 304 hectares, mainly in Daya and Tanzi in Taichung, and Erlin, Fuxing, Xiushui and Puyan in Changhua. After 1975, because the Puli Distillery's Shaoxing wine exports were booming, a "price-guaranteed purchase" policy was adopted, and the wheat cultivated area rose again, with the highest at 1,402 hectares in 1992. In 1995, in response to free trade, the government stopped price-guaranteed purchases, and farmer friends switched crops one after another. Today only 50 hectares in Daya, Taichung and 20 hectares in Xuejia, Tainan are under contract with the Kinmen Distillery, providing farmer friends in Kinmen with wheat seed to grow wheat in winter, with guaranteed purchase by Kinmen Kaoliang for use as the fermentation starter for kaoliang liquor. Combined with the government's passive and neglectful stance, agricultural improvement and research units had long since fully retreated, causing Taiwan-grown wheat to gradually disappear from the fields.

Chronicle of Xiyuan Wheat's "Wheat Field Rhapsody"

Photo/ Guo Zhi-rong

• 2007 can be said to be the year with the most intense price fluctuations in Taiwan since the first oil crisis in 1973, especially the unprecedented rises in raw materials for food processing and livestock feed such as corn, wheat and soybeans. Pressured by the external environment, Xiyuan Bakery began cooperating with wheat farmers in Daya, Taichung, collaborating on wheat contract farming, launching the "Wheat Field Rhapsody" wheat contract-farming program, and through on-site observation records and consultation interviews, laying the foundation for wheat farming management.
• In April 2008, international crude oil climbed to another peak, import prices repeatedly hit new highs, and "food journey" and "agricultural food self-sufficiency" sparked intense discussion; the cultivation of "wheat" also drew attention at this time. But after the financial tsunami in mid-September 2008, oil prices softened, bulk materials collapsed, wheat prices also fell sharply, and the public sector again fell silent and lost interest. However, we did not retreat; we still continued the contract-farming program and improved the spatial quality of wheat storage.
• From April to June 2009, fortunately we harvested on schedule and smoothly met our sales target, because there was a group of friends who firmly identified with and supported us - the Homemakers United Foundation Consumer Cooperative. Emboldened by our behind-the-scenes friends, we raised the contract-farming weight to 30 metric tons, and expanded the contract-farming locations from the original Daya, Taichung to Xuejia in Tainan, Yuanli in Miaoli, Fangyuan in Changhua, Yuanshan in Yilan and other places, building data on wheat growth under different environmental temperature layers.
• In December 2009, the mobile production traceability system platform was initially completed, attempting to provide "producers," "processors" and "consumers" with a transparent, friendly mode of communication, so that each could care for one another, learn together and grow together... This is also our shared aspiration.
• On January 23 and March 13, 2010, we held the "Wheat Field Rhapsody" and "Encore" concerts in Fangyuan, Changhua, combining nearby elementary schools with teachers and students of the Changhua String Music Alliance and the Homemakers United Foundation Consumer Cooperative; in addition to holding field-side talks to share wheat experience, they also displayed the life philosophy of ordinary people entertaining themselves. "Wheat Field Rhapsody 3.0" harvested nearly 25 metric tons, and with Chia Fa Flour's assistance in milling whole wheat flour, local wheat took a big step forward in primary processing and milling.
• In September 2010, whole wheat flour sales fell short of expectations, and in dire straits we resolutely "raised the stake" by adding three important production facility installations, none of which were related to the bread production business itself; they were all for the long-term stability of "contract-farmed wheat." These three works were the "low-temperature wheat storage warehouse," the "automatic roasting machine" and the "automatic quantitative powder and granule packaging machine," and we launched "Xiyuan Whole Wheat Noodles," which received a good response; this laid the sales cornerstone for the 2011 "Big Noodle God Plan," and because noodles can effectively relieve the storage pressure after the wheat harvest, it greatly boosted confidence in wheat contract farming.
• In October 2010, "Wheat Field Rhapsody 4.0" fulfilled the dream of island-wide wheat planting, with a contract-farming area of 22.9 hectares and 44 farmer friends participating. On January 7-9, 2011, together with wheat farmers from various places, we held the "Good Farmers Grand Tour" island-wide observation and exchange, and wheat planting sparked heated discussion in the producing areas. On March 26, 2011, together with the Homemakers United Foundation Cooperative we jointly held the "Grain-Moving Party," attempting to use the experience of wheat planting to directly trigger a revival of miscellaneous grain and cereal cultivation in Taiwan.
• In April 2011, because this season had little rain and a low temperature layer, the wheat harvest in the southwest was abundant, totaling 40.8 metric tons across all locations, and in Yuanli, Miaoli, Meinong, Kaohsiung and Shoufeng, Hualien, there was even output of organically certified wheat, directly challenging the public sector's rigid thinking that "Taiwan is unsuitable for growing wheat." On April 11 we further launched Xiyuan White Dolphin brand all-purpose flour, allowing the disappeared Taiwan-grown flour to be reborn.
• In August 2011, we proposed an effort plan to surpass "one ten-thousandth," taking 120 metric tons, one ten-thousandth of Taiwan's total imported wheat, as the goal of "Wheat Field Rhapsody 5.0," using more active action combined with processing resources to continuously expand the cultivated area.