Local wheat harvests come in one after another, enterprises help farmers

↑In 2012, farmer Chen Wen-long's wheat harvest in Yuanli, Miaoli.

The 2012 domestic wheat harvest has been coming in one after another. Following the harvests in the wheat fields of Tainan and Hualien, farmer Chen Wen-long in Yuanli, Miaoli, also rushed to bring in his crop to avoid bird damage, and Hsinchu Logistics, which took part in this year's contract wheat cultivation, made a special trip to join the harvest work.

To support domestic wheat cultivation, Hsinchu Logistics contracted one metric ton of flour from Xiyuan Wheat last year, and Chen Wen-long is the farmer who tends the contract wheat field area. To express their support for domestic agriculture, staff from Hsinchu Logistics' Taipei headquarters, the central district manager, branch office heads and workers all came to the wheat field together and personally went into the field to help with the harvest. Wang Qian-long, central district manager of Hsinchu Logistics, said that although none of them had ever worked in a field, everyone earnestly took up a sickle to cut wheat without slacking off, "because this is all precious domestic wheat!"

Wheat has three scourges: rain damage, insect damage and bird damage

Because of abnormal weather, this year's wheat harvest schedule was pushed back, and on top of last year's rain damage, the height and ripeness of the wheat in the field area were uneven. Although the harvest date had arrived and the wheat field should have been a solid sheet of gold, no such sight was to be seen this year: green wheat and ripe yellow wheat each made up half. Chen Wen-long had originally wanted to wait for more wheat to yellow a bit more and grow a bit taller, so that the harvest would better match the cost, but seeing that if he waited any longer, the ripe wheat would soon be eaten clean by birds, the indecisive Chen Wen-long quickly made up his mind within two days not to delay any further and decided to cut through the knot with a sharp knife and harvest as soon as possible!

Chen Wen-long said this year's wheat was miserable, and he believed there were three scourges: rain damage, insect damage and bird damage. What made many farmers decide to harvest early was largely bird damage, but the bird damage problem has always been the most distressing issue for farmers. Rain damage can be addressed by topdressing to increase the nutrients the wheat needs to grow, and for insect damage there are many organic materials that can be used for control, but bird damage alone has no solution.

"I remember when I was a child, when every household grew wheat, because the birds would spread out to eat, on average everyone's losses were not that big, but now few people grow it, and when we harvest, the nearby fields happen to be resting, so there is nothing to eat, and of course the birds only eat this plot!" Chen Wen-long thought it would be even better if more people were willing to join in and grow wheat together.

"But you have to have a strong heart." He smiled bitterly and said, "This year the wheat really was grown poorly. Many people in our coarse grain production and marketing group simply gave up on harvesting, because they reckoned even the harvest cost would not be worth it (note: harvesting wages are roughly 1,000 yuan to 1,200 yuan per fen of land), so they just plowed the soil, flooded it and planted rice seedlings." Chen Wen-long said.

"When it was grown well before, one fen of land could harvest more than 200 kg of wheat without any problem, but this year we don't even know if one fen of land will yield 50 kg." Chen Wen-long continued, "My wife and I discussed it for a long time, still wondering whether we should just give up too, and in the end my wife and I decided that even if we took a loss, we would still harvest it."

"Even though the amount is very small, it is still food after all. If you waste food carelessly, you will be struck by lightning!" When he said this, Chen Wen-long was not joking at all; he spoke very seriously.