Taiwan Today

Having trouble making kids eat their vegetables? It's not a problem in Taiwan, where vir­tually every Chinese dish in­cludes at least one vegetable, and often more. Vegetables like scallions, chives, and bamboo shoots are typically chopped, diced, or minced and added to a dish for flavor, while meat, poultry, and seafood entrees are usually cooked and served with other vegetables like spinach, cabbage, and eggplant. Of course, greens laced with garlic or covered with oyster sauce are main dishes in themselves. And the soup that usually accompanies any Chinese meal also has one or more vegetable ingredients. Result? A typical family-style meal for four will probably use at least five to seven different vegetables.

One reason Chinese cuisine is so healthy is that it relies more on vegetables and starches than it does on large portions of meat. Thus, from childhood, people are accustomed to eating all kinds of vegetables—prepared in many different ways and with a wonderful array of flavors. Since their youthful experience at the dinner table did not include soggy, over-boiled broccoli or tasteless canned peas, adults expect fresh vegetables to be a major component of their diet. And now that consumers have more disposable income, they are even more choosy. They want a wide variety, regard­less of the season or the cost.

To meet this growing demand, farmers and researchers are working to increase the quantity, quality, and variety of vegetables available on the market. According to statistics compiled by the Council of Agriculture (COA), the highest government agency in charge of agricul­tural affairs, forty years ago the total land area devoted to vegetable cultivation was only 30,000 hectares (a hectare is 2.47 acres) with an annual production volume of less than 300,000 metric tons. By 1990, the land area devoted to vegetables had increased nearly seven times to 220,000 hectares, second only to rice, and pro­duction volume reached 3 million tons. The number of vegetables and their cultivars has also increased from thirty varieties to more than a hundred, most of them grown for local consumption.

Vegetable farming on Taiwan actually dates back to prehistoric times. Archaeological evidence indicates that sweet pota­toes and several kinds of beans were grown by the earliest inhabitants. During the late Ming and early Ching dynasties (roughly 1624-1894), immigrants from the coastal provinces of mainland China introduced water chestnuts, leaf mustard, taro, and eggplant. During the Japanese occupation period (1895-1945), several agricultural research stations were established to introduce and breed foreign vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, edible burdock, onions, and tomatoes. This period laid a solid foundation for today's vegeta­ble industry.

The majority of Taiwan's vegetable farms are modest, family-run enterprises, averaging about one-fifth of a hectare. Most of the fields are concentrated on the coastal plains. Yunlin and Changhua counties in west-central Taiwan are the largest producers. Next in importance are Tainan, Pingtung, and Kaohsiung counties in the south. The northern counties of Taipei, Taoyuan, and Miaoli rank third. Despite their small size, these farms pro­duce one of the most varied selections of vegetables in Asia. The actual number of farmers engaged in the business is diffi­cult to estimate. One in every four rice farmers, for example, also grows vegetables as a secondary cash crop, and many other people raise vegetables part-time to supplement their income.

Yet this island cornucopia is facing a number of problems. Full-time vegetable farming is not a lucrative occupation. Ac­cording to the Hsilo Farmers' Association, vegetable farmers make approximately US$4,800-5,600 per year, well below the per capita income of US$8,000. Their income problem reflects a larger problem in the island's agricultural industry. Farming has taken a back seat to producing com­puters and other high-tech products. Farm workers have dropped to 13 percent of the labor force, and they produce only 4 percent of the GNP. In 1991, the government adopted a six-year policy of zero growth for the agricultural sector. Its very viability now appears threatened.

The problems most frequently cited by vegetable growers are the same ones facing the entire agricultural sector: low farm income, high production costs, a chronic shortage of labor, and seasonal fluctuations in prices. Such problems require creative solutions. To strengthen the industry, the COA, the provincial Depart­ment of Agriculture and Forestry, and farmers' associations are all working to develop new cultivars and more efficient cultivation techniques.

One of the biggest problems for growers and consumers is the seasonal fluctuations in supply and price. Vegetables can be grown all year round on Taiwan, but shortages are common in the summer and overproduction is common in the winter. During the winter season, from December through February, when rice fields are fal­low, many rice farmers turn to growing vegetables for additional income and for the beneficial effects crop rotation has on rice-growing land. Consequently, vegetables flood the markets in the winter months, re­sulting in a significant drop in prices. Moreo­ver, Taiwan farmers are highly independent. They want to be their own boss, even if it means lower income. Until they can be convinced of the importance of coopera­tion, overproduction is likely to continue.

Summer is the most unpredictable season for growing vegetables. The warm, humid weather provides ideal conditions for pests and diseases. It is also typhoon season. Wu Ming-tze (吳明哲), chief of the horticultural division, COA, explains: "From April to November, it rains a lot, which is really bad for vegetable growing. In April, we have what are called the plum rains, which last approximately one month. After these end, the typhoons start, bringing heavy rains and strong winds. Such weather can adversely affect veg­etable production, often creating shortages in the summer months." The magnitude of the problem varies from year to year. In 1990, for example, typhoons destroyed 110,000 metric tons of vegetables worth a total of US$58 million.

A shortage of vegetables means higher prices for consumers. Last April, after one month of rain, many vegetables rotted in the fields and retail prices more than dou­bled. The price of one kilogram of Chinese cabbage, for example, jumped from fifty cents to US$4. One of the most pressing problems for the industry is to stabilize the supply of vegetables in summer. A number of methods have been considered, includ­ing protective plastic structures, hydro­ponics, and high-elevation cultivation.

Presently, the use of protective structures seems the most promising route. "Since 1985, the COA has studied the feasibility of utilizing greenhouse-like structures in vegetable fields," Wu says. "And five years ago, we started promot­ing their use." The structures are common in Europe where they are used to protect plants from cold weather. But European­ style greenhouses are too expensive for local farmers because the average farm is too small to make the investment cost­ effective. As a result, the local variety tends to be much simpler and cheaper than those used in Europe. Plastic screen spread over a field is the least expensive type. Such structures are used primarily to protect leafy green vegetables from ex­cess wind and rain, but they are of little value when it comes to typhoons. The cost: US$10,000 per hectare. Tunnel-like plastic structures are more expensive, averaging US$120,000 per hectare, but they are much more effective in protecting vegetables from the devastating winds and rains brought by typhoons.

To encourage vegetable growers to use protective structures, the government offers subsidies. Chen Chi-peng (陳栖鵬), a farmer in Taoyuan city, has benefited from the program. "Before building plastic structures in my fields, my harvest was entirely unpredictable from year to year," Chen says. "One three-day downpour might ruin all my crops. Now that I have started using protective structures, when I pray to the Earth God, I say let it pour."

But few farmers actually use any structures. Most vegetables are still grown in the open fields without any sort of protection. The town of Hsilo in Yunlin county, for example, is one of the biggest vegetable producing areas, and its farm­ers' association has long encouraged the use of protective structures. But since most growers are quite conservative financially, they are reluctant to invest the necessary funds. To maximize profits, most prefer to gamble that summer storms will hit fields in other parts of the island and not their own.

Plastic tunnels have other advan­tages. Because of Taiwan's tropical and subtropical climate, insects and disease are a constant headache for farmers. The use of pesticides is often heavy, but is considered a necessary evil. Stories about excessive pesticide residues on vegetables and fruit have sparked a great deal of public concern. The plastic structures help protect vegetables from pests, thereby reducing the need for frequent applica­tions of pesticides.

According to Chen, the growing pe­riod for leafy vegetables averages twenty to twenty-five days. In the past, he had to apply pesticides four to five times during the growing period. Now, he only applies pesticides once during the entire growing time. Not only does he spend less on pesticides, but his vegetables also command a higher price on the market. His produce, which carries a special quality label, is sold in the supermarkets of Taoyuan and Taipei. "The price of my vegetables is three times that of vegetables grown out­side of protective structures, but consumers know that my vegetables are safer and cleaner," Chen says proudly.

A few years ago, hydroponics was also being considered as a way to ensure an adequate summer crop. In 1984, Dr. Kao Te-cheng of the Taichung District Agricultural Improvement Station began promoting the idea of growing vegetables without soil, and many farmers were in­terested. Two years later, Taiwan Sugar Corp., a government enterprise, took the lead in developing hydroponics. An experimental area covering half a hectare was set up in central Taiwan. But growing hydroponic vegetables was soon found to be too expensive. "They are 30 to 40 per­cent more expensive than vegetables grown in open fields, and consumers were not entirely satisfied with them because they contain more water and less fiber," says Chin Tieh-ying (靳鐵英), a section chief at Taiwan Sugar Corp. The com­pany stopped growing hydroponic veg­etables last year.

Some enterprising farmers have dis­covered that vegetables can be grown in the mountainous Lishan area of central Taiwan during the summer. The cool, mountain fields are ideally suited for the cultivation of vegetables such as Chinese cabbage and radishes. But more impor­tant, at 2,000 to 2,200 meters in elevation, the fields are not affected by the typhoons which can wreak such havoc on the coastal plains. Unfortunately, there is a down side as well. These fields have resulted in the deforestation and denudation of mountain slopes, which has led to serious soil erosion in some areas. The government therefore does not encourage mountain farming because the problems of soil and water conservation far outweigh any short-term consumer benefits. Currently there are 600 hectares of mountain lands under cultivation.

While the government and the industry continue to experiment with a variety of ways to stabilize veg­etable production in the summer, the government has also adopted the subtle art of persuasion as a potential solution. Officials are urging consumers to eat more frozen vegetables and root crops like radishes, onions, and carrots in sum­mer. "We need to educate consumers too," says Wu Ming-tze of the COA. "But when we encourage them to eat root and stem vegetables, they complain that they are not rabbits." Chiu Hsien-hsiang (邱顯香), a local housewife, expresses a typical viewpoint: "It's difficult to change our eating habits just for the summer. Besides, green leafy vegetables are good for you. They contain lots of vitamin A and C."

Consumer taste has had a tremen­dous influence on vegetable production in recent years. "A few decades ago, we were more concerned with eating our fill; today, eating well is the most important consideration," says Liao Po-ting (廖柏亭), chief of the promotion section at the Hsilo Farmers' Association. This shift in attitude is clearly reflected in vegetable growing. In the past, the industry was primarily concerned with just increasing production. Today, the way to maintain farm income is to diversify and be re­sponsive to market demands.

The increasing amount of land de­voted to bamboo shoot cultivation is one indication of how eating habits and con­sumer demand have changed. The total land area given over to production has increased from about 6,000 hectares to over 30,000 in the past forty years, making it one of the leading vegetable crops. Professor Huang Han (黃涵) of the Graduate Institute of Horticulture, Na­tional Taiwan University, explains why bamboo shoots have become so popular: "They are a healthy food, high in fiber and low in fat. And they can be grown year­-round. Taiwan consumers are fed up with heavy, greasy food and are opting for foods like bamboo shoots."

On the other hand, the total area planted with radishes has decreased sub­stantially. The main reason for this change is that pickled radishes used to be popular at breakfast, where they were eaten with rice congee. Today, the con­sumption of starchy rice congee is way down and so is consumption of radish pickles. The shrinking market has forced farmers to cut back on its cultivation.

Crop diversification and response to consumer demands has kept vegetable farming moderately profitable, but pro­duction costs are eating up more and more of the slim profits every year. Farm labor is expensive and in short supply, and growing vegetables is labor-intensive work. Although mechanization is one means of overcoming the labor shortage and reducing high production costs, the scale of production must be fairly large before mechanization is a profitable al­ternative. The small size of most farms often makes this difficult to achieve.

Some small-scale mechanization has occurred. For example, the mechanized gardening tools common in the West, such as rotary cultivators and seeders, are widely used for soil preparation and planting. Drip irrigation and other water­ing systems have also become more affordable and some farmers are installing them. "Watering was the most exhausting job," says Taoyuan farmer Chen Chi­-peng. "It took me two hours to carry one hundred buckets of water to water one­-tenth of a hectare. Now, I've installed a mechanical watering system inside my plastic structures. After I turn it on, I can smoke and take a rest." But many jobs still have to be done entirely by hand. Harvesting leafy vegetables, for example, takes approximately eighty hours per one­-tenth hectare of land, and is still the most time-consuming aspect of farming.

Many farmers blame high market prices and low farm income on the inefficient distribution and marketing systems and exploitative middlemen. Produce must go through many hands. It has been estimated that before vegetables reach the consumer, they have gone through as many as five or six middlemen. It is quite common for vegetable prices in the retail market to be eight times higher than in the growing area.

Like most vegetables shipped from the farm to urban areas, those produced in Hsilo are processed through two principal channels. One is the Shared Transport and Marketing (STM) network run by the Hsilo Farmers' Association. Farmers deliver their harvests to STM collection and dis­tribution centers in the afternoon and the staff members take care of everything. Since one-eighth of all the vegetables produced in Taiwan are consumed in Taipei, much of the produce is transported to the Taipei Agricultural Products Mar­keting Corp. and sold to the highest bidder at auction early the next morning. Except for a 4 percent management fee and transportation charge paid to the STM au­thorities, profits are wired back to each farmer's account.

The second distribution channel is through local wholesale markets. For instance, farmers deliver their crops to Hsilo's wholesale market in the afternoon where buyers from nearby cities bargain with farmers. Liao Po-ting of the Hsilo Farmers' Association points out: "The problem with this distribution channel is that if vegetables are overproduced lo­cally, farmers may end up spending the whole day at the market without finding a buyer." Nevertheless, many farmers pre­fer this channel because they believe they can get a better price locally than in Tai­pei or other big cities.

To solve the problems associated with the present small-scale and inefficient marketing system, the COA is encouraging implementation of a Direct Transport and Marketing (DTM) system. Under this sys­tem, farmers sell their vegetables directly to supermarkets, cutting out the middlemen. Farmers can improve their incomes and consumers can expect more reasonably priced vegetables. At present, the DTM system handles only about 8 percent of the vegetables produced islandwide. The COA hopes this will increase to more than 50 percent in the near future, especially if more big buyers such as supermarkets, schools, hospitals, and restaurants can be persuaded to participate.

The Hankuang Fruit and Vegetable Production Cooperative in Hsilo has been involved in the direct transport and mar­keting business since 1989. Now, more than 50 percent of the cooperative's business is with the army, which orders 1,100 tons of vegetables per month. The cooperative is also one of the suppliers for the Wellcome Supermarket chain and thirty other smaller supermarkets. Direct transport and marketing systems like the cooperative can bring better planning and organization to the vegetable industry.

Liao Ting-chuan (廖丁川), chairman of the cooperative, signs contracts with farmers to grow certain vegetables needed by clients. In this way, farmers do not overproduce and markets are guaranteed adequate quantities of specific vegetables. Farmers are offered two manners of payment. They can either pay the cooperative a 3 percent transportation and packaging fee or they can accept a flat annual rate of US$6,400-7,200, plus a share in 65 percent of the profits garnered by the market at the end of the year. "I hope the farmers under contract will concentrate on production and let me take care of the distribution and marketing business," Liao says.

To keep the industry viable, inno­vative cultivation techniques and the development of improved cultivars have become more im­portant. Several agricultural research groups at the provincial and central gov­ernment levels have long been involved in developing the technology and plant hybrids to make farming more efficient and to provide consumers with high quality vegetables.

The COA has dispatched several mis­sions to South America, Europe, and Southeast Asia to find high-yielding fruit and vegetable strains that are drought-tol­erant and resistant to diseases and pests. The last mission was dispatched in 1986. All varieties brought back are first grown under careful observation at agricultural ex­perimental stations and universities. If suc­cessful, they are introduced to island farmers.

According to COA personnel, new fruit species have fared better on the market than vegetables. It takes five or six years to get quantities of fruit on the market, and in that time a marketing and advertising program can be developed to promote the new fruit. But vegetables can reach the market in a month, and consumers are generally reluctant to try them, while wholesalers and farmers are afraid of losing money on an unusual new crop.

At the provincial level, there are six agricultural improvement stations scat­tered around the island. These stations are charged with introducing new vegetables, improving regional vegetables through hybridization; providing agricultural education and extension services; and conducting research on insect pests and plant diseases. The Taoyuan station has eighty-eight staff members, sixty-nine technical staff personnel, and seventy­-seven skilled laborers. Fan Shu-chen (范淑貞) of the Taoyuan District Agri­cultural Improvement Station remembers that three years ago when she was doing research on water convolvulus, consum­ers liked the vegetable with light green, wide leaves. "Consumer taste has changed over the years," she says. "Now they prefer water convolvulus with dark green, narrow leaves."

With the assistance of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry, some farmers are trying to remedy many of the problems facing the industry. The Specialized Vegetable Production Areas program, a plan designed to adopt cost­ saving production techniques and im­proved cultivation techniques, was initiated in 1973. The department, often in conjunction with local farmers' associa­tions, seeks farmers willing to pool their land and work as a production team. Generally, twenty to thirty farmers are required to form a twenty-hectare pro­duction area. Together, the group seeks ways to increase productivity, cut costs, and employ ecologically friendly farming methods. Thus far, 2,700 hectares of land around the island are in the program.

Government and academic agricul­tural experts work with the farmers to in­troduce new cultivars and improved cultivation techniques. As a group, the farmers can also buy seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides at lower rates. The government also provides them with a revolving fund to purchase plastic screen, water pumps, and other farm equipment. Farmers in the group share labor, and most have also developed their own distribution and marketing systems.

Such innovative programs may help keep vegetable farming viable. Wu Ming­-tze of the COA remains optimistic about the future of the industry. "The land for agricultural use is not going to increase but profits will," he says. "Vegetables, especially leafy greens which are perish­able and cannot be imported, are a necessary part of our daily diet. With a strong local market, vegetable production will grow." Given the importance placed on creative use of vegetables in Chinese cuisine, this should be no problem.