Rice Farming at Xizhou Shangshui Friendly Farm Products

Taking advantage of a lull in the rainy weather, I, a hired hand in the pear orchards of Xizhou, excitedly hurried to photograph and document my rice field that had already headed out. Halfway through, a voice suddenly came from behind me: "Young man, are you going to put this on TV to sell?" It turned out to be a farmer from the neighboring field, already over seventy years old but still full of vigor. I said it would go on the internet, and he asked if it cost money. I said the website is free, but you have to pay a bit each month for the internet line, though your grandchildren probably all use it anyway, so it costs nothing extra to make use of it.

The older man then struck up a conversation with me about organic farming. "The most important thing in doing organic is your sales channel. You're lucky your father has land and even gives you money to support you; otherwise, for an ordinary person doing this… once the costs go in and the yield is low, if no one offers you a better price to buy it, then you're in for a hard time." Then he shifted tack and talked about how conventional farming should, by rights, also need government protection and promotion by the farmers' association. If rice is overproduced, and at that point the government buys it up at a standard price, then the outside market price won't fall too severely; and then, take Hualien, with so many brands of organic rice, which actually aren't necessarily tastier than what we grow here by the Zhuoshui River, it's just that our rice lacks introduction and marketing, which is why its reputation isn't as loud. But in reality, both the government and the farmers' association are unreliable….. The more the older man talked, the more worked up he got, and no wonder he wanted to understand other models of agricultural marketing.

I also seized the chance to ask the older man for rice-growing tips. "Back in your grandfather's time, the rice often grew until it toppled over. Your father couldn't quite manage it at first either; now it's a bit better, but still not very good." Naturally, I was all ears! "Fertilizing is the key point; you have to match it to the weather and the growth of the plants. When the weather is clear and warm and the plants are growing vigorously, you have to control the amount of fertilizer and not apply too much. For example, with first-crop rice, those sown early can slowly take up fertilizer and grow steadily; if those sown late encounter warm weather, they may absorb too much fertilizer at once and can't bear it, and afterward are prone to disease or lodging."

So then you have to consider many variables that affect one another. "Right, so field observation is very important! The experience from every planting is very important!" In that case, wasn't the person standing before me essentially a martial arts master who had accumulated a full sixty years of practical field expertise? Fortunately, the older man said that although my plot of non-toxic rice hadn't grown well enough vegetatively, the weather during the few days of heading was good and combined with fertilization, so now it looked passable.

The older man had the simple sincerity of a country person, along with a kind of optimistic, tenacious enterprising spirit, which made his expressions and speech quite persuasive and engaging. I had wanted to ask his name and take a photo of him, but he said no need, and just walked off coolly like that. Thinking about it, there must still be many such hidden masters in the world, rich in experience, concerned about society, and unwilling to admit age or concede defeat to the larger environment, just waiting for the right moment to appear, ready at any time to combine what they have thought and learned to blaze a completely new path.

The people of Taiwan, China are not lacking in talent; the only question is who will shoulder the responsibility and be the first to raise that banner and sound the horn of counterattack. Perhaps this is the deepest hope and expectation that many Xizhou folks, quietly working hard, hold for "Xizhou Shangshui Friendly Farm Products."