So, too, on Taiwan, only the cry is "Get A Water Buffalo!"
Horse or buffalo, the attempt to hold onto the past is just as unavailing, because the great, friendly beast of all work is giving way to a piece of machinery that eats diesel oil and does more chores even better. Called a power tiller, the all-purpose farm machine is actually a miniature tractor especially designed for the small land holdings and straitened pocketbooks of Asia.
In the long run, a power tiller costs less in price and in maintenance, lasts longer and does more. That is why there are now 7,000 compared with seven in 1954. Even more rapid increase lies just ahead. On a basis of an estimated requirement of two water buffalo for every two hectares (almost five acres), Taiwan needs 142,000 more of them. The source of supply is not in sight. The island's 785,000 farm families have 421,000 head of cattle, 300,000 of them utilized as draft animals. An intensive effort was made to boost the water buffalo population, but the gain was only 14,000 in five years. Since 1959, the increase has been almost nil.
The Taiwan Provincial Government consequently has undertaken a power tiller promotion campaign that is scheduled to place 80,000 on farms by 1969. That will mean mechanization of one farm in ten, and those with tillers can be expected to hire out for neighborhood plowing and other heavy work.
Interest in power tillers dates to 1954, when the Sino-American Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction introduced seven U.S.-made machines for experimental use. They were of from five to ten horsepowers and results were not good. The machines were too big for Taiwan's small, irregular plots of lands. They were designed primarily for upland rather than paddy cultivation, and the price was too high.
The next year, two smaller tillers were imported from Japan. Because of geographical similarity, the Japanese product proved more suitable to needs of the Chinese farmer. Operation was easier and price much lower. Subsequently, another 13 machines were placed at agricultural experimental stations for demonstration. German and British tillers also were imported and tried.
Made in Taiwan
It soon was realized, however, that Taiwan's growing manufacturing capacity could turn out a cheaper machine and one better adapted to local conditions. That has been the power tiller solution. Foreign imports have dropped from 97 in 1956 to fewer than 50 in 1962. More than 20 plants in Taipei, Taichung, Changhua, Tainan and Kaohsiung are making tillers and other farm tools.
The largest is the Chinese Agricultural Machinery Company established in Taipei in 1960. Of its US$1,500,009 in capital, a third is held by the Land Bank of Taiwan. Another third came from two Japanese firms: Yanmar Diesel Engine Co. Ltd., US$300,000, and Iseki Agricultural Machinery Co. Ltd., US$200,000. The rest was put up by seven local entrepreneurs.
Production is supervised by engineers who were given special training in Japan. More than 30 per cent of the raw materials comes from the domestic market. Most of the rest comes from Japan.
Three kinds of tillers are marketed.
Model K48F is 220 centimeters (7'2.6") long, 74 cm. (2'5") wide and 110 cm. (3'7.3") high. Engine capacity is 5.5-8 h.p. It can cultivate 700-1,000 square meters (0.175-0.25 acres) of land an hour. Road speed is 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) an hour. Price is US$1,100.
Model K20F is little larger than K 48F and costs US$1,300. With a 7-10.5 h.p. engine, its maximum working capacity is 1,500 sq.m. (0.375 acres) an hour.
Many Uses
Model KFG600 is the latest and sells for US$1,375. Working capacity is similar to that of K20F. Mechanical construction is simpler and operation easier.
Average monthly production is 125 machines. Tentative target is 300.
Power tiller output was 4,400 in 1961 (File photo)
CAMC power tillers can be used not only for plowing, but also for harrowing, digging, pumping, husking, peeling, sawing and transportation. CAMC is planning to add marine engines, threshing machines and weeding machines and sprayers to its output.
Second largest tiller manufacturer is the Shin Taiwan Agricultural Machinery Co. Ltd.. founded in Kaohsiung in 1961. It cooperates with two Japanese firms: Mitsui Bussan Kaisha Ltd. and Kubota Iron and Machinery Works Ltd. Capitalization is US$1,250,000.
Shin Taiwan also produces three types of power tillers: model KMB200 (8-10 h.p.), KMB220 (10-13 h.p.) and KA650 (4-6.5 h.p.). Working capacity of KMB200 and KA650 is 0.24 acres an hour and that of KMB220 0.29 acres. Prices range from US$750 to US$1,250. More than 35 per cent of raw materials comes from the local market.
Some 20 Japanese technicians are stationed in the plant to supervise production. However, they soon will be replaced by Chinese.
Bank Loans
Monthly production is 100 machines. Within three years, it will be increased to 500.
Manufacturers render free technical service to tiller purchasers. More than 20 service stations have been set up.
About 95 per cent of tillers are bought by farmers with loans from the Land Bank, the Cooperative Bank and the Taiwan Provincial Food Bureau. With a purchaser mortgaging one or two hectares of land, payment is made in 10 installments over a period of five years.
Between 1956 and 1961, the Land Bank loaned more than US$1,000,000 for 1,600 tillers. Food Bureau loans were greater—US$1,500,000 in 1962 alone. The Cooperative Bank has advanced loans for about 400 machines.
Tillers can be used for transportation as well as farm work (File photo)
To teach farmers the use of machinery, the Taiwan Farm Machinery Training Center was established at Pingtung Agricultural College in May, 1961. More than 60 kinds of farming tools costing US$250,000 were donated by Trusteeship and Trade Promotion Ltd. of West Germany. Trainees include graduates from agricultural schools and personnel from township governments.
Similar training has been sponsored by the Taiwan Farmers' Association. More than 30 classes have been conducted since 1957.
Twenty-five agricultural schools have machine shops. For example, Hualien Agricultural school in east Taiwan began a mechanized farming program in i957. Students receive training in operating machines, metallurgy, carpentry, masonry, plastering and wiring. Students have six tiller-tractors ranging from three to 25 h.p. for field work. From time to time, students organize working parties for demonstrations in rural areas.
Small Farms
A power tiller can plow seven inches deep, two times the depth attainable with a buffalo. According to report of the Power Tiller Experiment Station, working speed of a power tiller is 3.47 times faster than that of a buffalo. Expenses can be reduced by 23.78 per cent and production increased by 11.9 per cent.
On the average, a Taiwan farm family has little more than one hectare (2.47 acres) of paddy field. Land cultivation can be finished in four working days with a small power tiller. For the two to four crop seasons a year, tillers can be used in the field for only about two weeks. For this reason, some have expressed doubt as to whether mechanization would be economically justifiable.
However, an analysis made by the Advisory Committee on Intensive Village Improvement in Pingtung county in late 1960 said the cost of a power tiller can be recovered in a year.
Lin Ho-yung, a farmer of Wanluan township, Pingtung county, bought a tiller manufactured by the Kubota Iron and Machinery Works Ltd. for NT$42,300 (US$1,058). The Land Bank granted him an NT$26,000 (US$650) loan, repayable in 10 semi-annual installments.
Used for 12 hours a day, a power tiller can plow half a hectare (1.24 acres) of land. It takes from 10 to 13 days for a buffalo to plow a hectare. The cost of plowing one hectare by tiller is 450-500 Taiwan catties (585-650 pounds) of paddy rice, equivalent to NT$990-1,100 (US$25-28). The cost of plowing one hectare by a buffalo is 650 lbs. of paddy rice.
Working 15 to 30 days a crop season, Lin can plow 15 hectares (37 acres) of land for other farmers and receive NT$14,850-16,500 (US$371-413) for his services. For two crop seasons a year, he can receive NT$29,700-33,000 (US$743-825).
A power tiller can carry 3,000 Taiwan catties (3,900 lbs.) of weight. On the basis of NT$8-10 (US$0.2-0.25) per kilometer (0.6 miles) and approximately 80 km. (48 miles) a day, Lin's daily income from transporting goods for other farmers amounts to NT$640-800 (US$16-20). During the four off months each year, his power tiller could earn NT$76,800-96,000 (US$1,920-2,400) in transportation fees.
Substantial Profit
Lin's expenses for cultivation will include his labor, diesel fuel for the tiller, lubricants, replacement drive belts and two sets of rotary blades each year. For transportation he will have to figure labor, fuel, the cost of trailer and other auxiliary equipment, a garage to keep them in, and additional taxes.
But when expense is subtracted from income, he could still have a profit of around NT$24,000 (US$600 for farming services and NT$48,000 (US$1,200) for transportation services. It thus is quite possible for a power tiller to be an extremely profitable investment.
Of course, the profit figures are maximum and will not be attained, especially in the light of wider tiller ownership and competition. Even so, the tiller is a good buy. Its maintenance is much less than that of a buffalo. And it extra help is needed, a fact to remember is that the tiller goes to work at once, whereas a buffalo calf is not employable until it is two years old. Weather conditions also favor the machine. A buffalo cannot stand scorching heat and a draft cow cannot work in irrigated land.
The farmer must clean the stable every day and remove manure when his buffalo is walking along the road. During the tilling season, he must cut grass for his animal.
Trend to Machines
The power tiller has changed the island's rural life.
In the March (1961) issue of the Land Reform monthly, Wu Wei-chien writes:
"My son could not find a job after graduating from high school. During the crop season, he did nothing but read novels at home. At first, I thought he was not willing to do farming because he had several years of schooling. But when my neighbor bought a power tiller, my son was very much interested in it and helped in field work.
"Later, I bought one for my son. He is now completely changed. He is crazy about it and works hard day and night. I never thought that a power tiller could make a lazy boy into a diligent farmer."
Power tiller manufacturers now look forward to exports, especially to Africa and Southeast Asia.
In early November, 2,500 weeding machines were exported to the Malagasy Republic. Sixty threshing machines will be shipped to that African state by the end of 1962.
Not so strangely, one of the biggest impediments to more rapid mechanization of Taiwan's own farms is the attitude of the farmer toward the buffalo. He looks at the power tiller, and admires its cold-blooded efficiency. He likes what it does and its wide-variety usefulness.
Member of Family
"But what," he asks, "am I going to do with my cow?"
In Taiwan, where the buffalo is virtually a member of the family and beef is not eaten by farm people, that is a big question. The first manufacturer to provide guaranteed pasture and kind treatment for retired buffaloes might cash in.