Daxi Zhongzhuang Adjustment Pool and Peripheral Trails / Credit: Northern Region Water Resources Office, Water Resources Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs
Learning to Achieve Common Good with Lands
The Organic Cultivation without Pesticides
We're convinced that the cultivation taking common good with the land into consideration will enable the harvest of premium crops in correspondence and a more wonderful operation with sustainability.
A Youth Returning to Hometown Seeking to Cultivate the Field with Great Ideals
Driving on the country road under the blue sky with white clouds and caressed by the breeze, we are now surrounded by a vast area of fields planted with various crops swaying gently with the wind, as if they're welcoming the arrival of guests. After a few turns, we have arrived at the Vanilla Ueno Park in Zhongzhuang Area, Daxi Dist.
"Would anyone dare to eat the crops sprayed with pesticides?" Young farmer Lin Zhan-Ting is now one of the directors of the Vanilla Ueno Park and is committed to promoting non-toxic organic agriculture. The three brothers of the Lin family originally started businesses abroad, but were invited by the elder brother and decided to return to hometown to run a business together. By utilizing what they have learned, they built an organic herb garden together to drive local revitalization.
Improving Farmland Pollution to Create a Healthier Life
With the development of economy and technology, the rural population has gradually moved out, resulting in an aging agricultural population and a lack of employment opportunities in rural areas. Therefore, the Department of Agriculture of the Taoyuan City Government promotes the "Youth Agriculture Engagement Counseling Program" to help aspiring young people engage in agriculture for agricultural transformation, in which course training, farm practice and mentoring for entrepreneurship as well as opportunities for matching with enterprises are provided. At present, a total of 304 young farmers in 9 echelons have completed their training and have won many awards. Lin Zhan-Ting is one of the outstanding young farmers.
At that time, Lin Zhan-Ting intended to adopt organic farming, which requires the cooperation of surrounding farmland to achieve overall non-toxicity. Zhongzhuang area is one of Taiwan's main production areas of Chinese leek, which are currently grown adopting conventional farming methods. In conventional farming, to reduce costs and increase harvest, chicken manure fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides that will be used in the farming process. This will not only make crops sick, but also breed diseases and pests and pollute the environment, creating a vicious circle. To tackle such issue, through the Youth Repatriation Program of the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau of the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, Lin first communicated to other farmers the benefits of not spraying pesticides in an experimental manner; at the same time, he also met the "The Lan Family Friendly Farm" who shared the same ideals. Through technical exchanges by the two parties, the organic pesticide-free Chinese Leek planting method without compromise in yield was finally achieved.
In fact, the issue of farmland pollution has always been a topic of concern to all walks of life, as crops will absorb pollutants in the soil, thereby affecting food safety. In addition to pesticides, other pollutants to farmland include those in air, wastewater and heavy metals generated during the industrial development. For the monitored polluted farmland, Department of Environmental Protection of the Taoyuan City Government has established standardized and transparent pollution amelioration procedures under the "Improvement Plan for Farmland Soil Pollution Control Site Appropriate Measures in Taoyuan City" featuring the excavation in conjunction with ploughing to remediate agricultural land pollution. In addition, soil characteristics and irrigation water quality assessment are also carried out through the "National Control and Investigation plans for Farmlands with High Heavy Metal Pollution Potentials". By the end of 2021, Taoyuan City has completed remediation to 2,824 monitored farmlands (area at approx. 337 hectares) and has actively achieved the comprehensive management and prevention of farmland following improvement.
The Transformation of Agriculture is the Measure for Enhanced Competitiveness
Seedlings growing, fertilizing, and irrigating, all stages are closely linked. Although Lin Zhan-Ting adopted special European food ingredients as the main economic crops, he also spends a lot of energy to promote the transformation of local agriculture, while studying along with other farmers the methods of leek cultivation to help the transformation of leek cultivation. For example, the leek seedling raising engaging the plantation in the 128-cell straight plug trays used during sowing refrain the farmers from bending over to sow and is the solution to overgrown weeds. In addition, environmentally friendly dry granular fertilizers and natural strains are utilized to achieve the dual effects of organic farming and removal of plant disease. Furthermore, farmers are also encouraged to install systematic irrigation facilities, which can dodge the bullet of drought and allow the provisional effects of fertilizers without causing pollution to water source. Lin Zhan-Ting acts generously without concealing tricks with the sole purpose of common good between the farmers and the land.
Lin Zhan-Ting also makes proper use of various resources provided by the Government, such as applying for a multiple employment subsidy from the Ministry of Labor to ensure the rights to employment of women intending for a second career, who he employs as Chinese Leek pickers; in addition, he also cooperates with the City's Department of Environmental Protection in the realization of zero wastes resulting from residual Chinese Leek leaves with poorer appearance by turning them into fertilizers, thereby creating a "zero-waste farm". In terms of education promotion, he cooperates with Daxi Wood Art Ecological Museum and surrounding universities in the planning of a series of exciting events, such as "Chinese Leek Island Adventure", whose activities allow the public understand the process of Chinese Leek planting and cooking as well as the history, hydrology, geography and industry of Daxi; a slang exhibition area with Taiwanese slangs related to Chinese Leeks has also been furnished to allows tourists to learn, connecting people, land and culture.
When it comes to expectations for the future, Lin Zhan-Ting said, "actually, I got this from many elders that the most famous specialty in Daxi in the early days was delicious Chinese Leeks, which is known to few nowadays. Therefore, we have been promoting the Chinese Leek industry to recover Daxi's first impression to the mass back to Chinese Leeks."
Taoyuan has many excellent agricultural teams with edges in plantations of rice, vegetables and fruits, grains, flowers, etc. It is anticipated that, by cultivating more excellent farmers, local agriculture can be revitalized, thereby improving farmers' income and facilitating the local features in the management orientation toward sustainability.