Chen Wen-yu was born to a farming family in 1925 in southern Taiwan. When he turned 11, his parents asked him to work in the fields with them after school. "Life was tough at that time. We grew rice but didn't eat rice because we had to sell it for money. We raised chickens to sell eggs," he recalls. "My father copied others, growing what they grew and doing what they did. The seeds were poor quality and there was just no real knowledge of good cultivation techniques. I often saw my father standing in the fields, simply dismayed at how poor the yields were. I thought then there had to be a way to make this better and resolved to study agriculture to help make changes. Otherwise, there could be no way out."
The main routes out of a lifetime of backbreaking drudgery on the land were teaching or the police force. But Chen was determined to stay with the land. Accordingly, he entered an agricultural college, and after graduation got a job at the Fengshan Tropical Horticultural Experiment Branch of the Agricultural Research Institute, a department of the Council of Agriculture (COA). Driven by memories of his father's poor crops and the seeds they came from, Chen began to specialize in the research and development (R&D) of seeds better suited to Taiwan's climate and soil. This in turn led him to study cross-pollination techniques.
He was particularly interested in the theory of seedless watermelons proposed by the Japanese scholar Dr. Hitoshi Kihara in 1951, according to which crossing a female tetraploid plant (itself the product of genetic manipulation) with diploid pollen creates a triploid plant that is sterile, but can produce seedless fruit if pollenized by a diploid plant. Sound as the theory was, in practice none of the seed companies in Japan could successfully cultivate the seedless variety on a commercial scale. After incessant experimentation, in 1962 Chen succeeded in this task. The subsequent boom for Taiwan's seedless watermelons generated an annual export value of more than NT$100 million, and led to a new era of hybridity and crossbreeding in fruit and vegetables.
Funding Problems
Chen was full of enthusiasm and ideas for developing new crop variants, but his research projects were often held up by shortages of funding. "The prerequisite for agricultural development is to have good strains. Breeding, however, is a time-consuming task that takes as long as 10 years. That makes using government funding difficult, since the result cannot be reported in one or two years," he says.
The capriciousness of government funding eventually pushed Chen into the private sector, leaving the institute where he had worked for some 20 years to start a business of his own, hoping to earn money so as to fund what he really liked to do. In 1968 when he was 42, he set up Known-You Seed Co. "My first goal was to create the world's number-one watermelons, the largest number of varieties and the most delicious. Afterwards, I would aim for other number-one crops," he says. His aim was to help farmers enjoy better crop yields while consumers could benefit from tastier and healthier food.
One reason that Chen was interested in watermelons was that at that time few cool drinks were available. As a result there was a large demand for thirst-quenching watermelons during Taiwan's torrid summers. "When doing seedling R&D, the first thing you need to think about is market demand. Only when your products are accepted by farmers and demanded by consumers can they be counted as a success," he says.
Since its establishment, Known-You has developed around 1,100 fruit and vegetable varieties, with 600 of them going into mass production. In particular, the company has bred a total of 285 watermelon species--a quarter of the world's total.
Now, over 90 percent of watermelon seeds sold to farmers in Taiwan are Chen's creations. And thanks to the species improvement he has made, watermelons are cultivated on the island all year round and in various kinds of soils.
Meanwhile, the US seed-testing organization All-America Selections, the mission of which is to promote new seed varieties with superior garden performance through tests by a network of independent judges, has, from a total of seven awards made for watermelons, given four to Known-You.
Genetic engineering promises to revolutionize agriculture (Courtesy of Known-you Seed Co.)
Forty-six-year-old Liao Kun-hai, living in central Taiwan's Yunlin County, is a watermelon grower. Twenty years ago, he inherited his father's farm under Siluo bridge, which crosses the Jhuoshuei river. "Back in the 1970s, my father used to grow sweet potato, which was generally used as pig-feed. The farmers in that area were all very poor because the sand on the streambeds was dry, and it became cold and windy in winter. People had said for generations that you can't grow anything in Siluo," he says. "Later on, Chen Wen-yu came to our village to teach us to cultivate seedless watermelons. Subsequently, other villages followed our practice because of the good harvests and prices. In a few years' time, the barren land here was turned into Taiwan's largest watermelon production site."
Rewards from Changes
Liao says that in recent years farming has changed. Whereas it used to be focused solely on production volumes, now it has to highlight quality as well. Because of this he is constantly trying out new strains in an effort to boost both quality and productivity. "I buy seeds mainly from Known-You because they are the most reliable. Plus, the company passes on information to us whenever it develops new varieties and techniques," he says. "We rely on good seed companies like Known-You because they specialize in variety improvement, something we cannot afford to do ourselves."
Lee Ying-chi has been growing watermelons and honeydew melons in Yunlin County for 15 years. "I've been using seeds from Known-You from the very beginning, since the company introduced various strains for different seasons, its seeds are reliable and we don't have to worry about mutation problems," he says. "Furthermore, Known-You's seeds are only half the price of their Japanese equivalents."
Lee says the melons that he grows can reach between 14 and 18 percent sugar content. And because of their delicious sweet taste, they can always sell for higher prices. "Agriculture can still be competitive as long as you have a high quality product," he says. "Currently, I sell my fruit not only on the domestic market but also in China and Malaysia. Taiwan's entry into the World Trade Organization has been a plus to me and, I believe, to many others as well in facilitating our exports. On the other hand, importers find it hard to compete with us in terms of freshness, pricing and volume."
In the meantime, Chen Wen-yu has not rested on his laurels after his success with watermelons. Noticing that his grandson disliked eating tomatoes gave him a new R&D idea. "Tomatoes are nutritious but kids used to stay away from them because they used to be big and dry," he says. "So I thought I could make them smaller, cuter and tastier so that they could be eaten in one mouthful."
It took six years of testing to develop "Santa" mini-tomatoes which quickly became popular in Taiwan and were introduced in the United States in 1994. Since then production has risen to 40,000 tons, accounting for 50 percent of the US grape tomato market.
Chen attributes his capacity for continued innovation to his ownership of a seed bank that features some 60,000 different genetic specimens from all over the world. After a desiccative treatment, these seeds are placed in glass jars in a dark, low-temperature environment and can be conserved for decades.
New Concerns
While high yields used to be the main concern in developing a new strain, Chen says, now attention is given to looks and taste, as well as nutritional value. Also, more R&D effort is exercised on making crops hardier, able to withstand rain, wind, disease and pests. For Chen, for a crop to survive a storm is not a matter of chance but of science. After a storm hits one of his research fields, he rushes out to the plots to look for survivors, which will make good breeding material for the development of tougher cultivars.
A few years ago, Chen handed over corporate operations to his son, Chen Lung-mu. Nevertheless, at 81, he remains active, going to work every day, training R&D talent and continuing his own research. "The next world number-one crop I want to develop is pumpkins and after that, eggplants," he says with enthusiasm. "Seeing farmers make money and come to thank me is my biggest happiness and motivation for my work."
So far, Known-You has set up five experimental farms across the island, and production and marketing bases in China, India, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The company has recently expanded into flower varieties and intends to cooperate with biopharmaceutical companies to refine essence from fruits and vegetables. Its annual sales amount to NT$800 million (US$24 million), with exports accounting for 65 percent.
Liao Wen-pin and his hot-selling square watermelons (Courtesy of Known-you Seed Co.)
Chen Lung-mu says his company spends NT$100 million (US$3 million) a year on R&D. "In the face of intensified international competition, we have to develop distinctive varieties in terms of look, taste and adaptation, with germination reaching 90 percent," he says. "Another direction is localization. That is to develop species locally to better address local needs."
He believes that Taiwan has a strong competitive edge in traditional breeding but is weak in marketing and technological renewal, particularly in biotechnology. He also lists custom-made, pest-resistant cultivars and organic cultivation as upcoming trends. The other noticeable development in the field is the utilization of genetic engineering. Despite its as-yet-undetermined impact on human health, such techniques have been widely used in fodder crops such as soybeans and corn and in the near future are likely to be used in vegetables and fruit, developments which Taiwan needs to prepare for.
Chen Shih-hsien, a technical adviser with the COA, says that in the past the government's R&D resources were largely used on improving strains of rice. With his farsightedness and efforts, Chen Wen-yu has made a tremendous contribution to Taiwan's fruit and vegetable variants over the past decades.
"Ten years ago, like the electronics industry, Taiwan's seed production business was gradually forced to relocate to where the production costs were cheaper. Chen's countermeasure was to enhance R&D and promote his own brand. That's really the way to go," he says. "Now, I believe all Taiwanese farmers know about Known-You and associate the brand with reliability."
Bespoke Seeds
Chen says Known-You is capable of developing crop species based on customer demands, such as color, shape, size and taste. While acclaiming Known-You as a world-class company, he adds, however, that most Taiwanese seed companies operate on a small scale and few are engaged in R&D. To improve this problem, the COA is seeking to integrate its various research units into a national agricultural research institute that will be assimilated into the Industrial Technology Research Institute, which carries out technological R&D for subsequent transfer to businesses.
Wang Chin-chih, chairman of the Taiwan Seeds Trade Association, says that in recent years several international seed companies have merged and their operational scale and R&D capabilities have seen substantial expansion. Nevertheless, these international firms mostly target bulk crops like corn and soybeans. Taiwan's specialty is horticulture crops, which gives it a handy niche, but since the domestic market size is small, the seedling industry needs to promote exports to see growth.
Wang cites Known-You as a good business model for others to learn from. "Apart from establishing production plants and marketing companies overseas, Known-You's Taiwan headquarters is dedicated to R&D. That's why it can build a presence in the international market, offer a broad range of product lines and continually introduce new variants," he says. To help develop the island's seedling industry, Wang says, his association organizes seminars and fact-finding tours, as well as publishing research data and assisting with seed production, packaging and marketing.
It is said that farmers are at the mercy of nature. With his empathy for the plight of farmers, Chen, however, has spent his life trying to make farming less of a gamble through cultivating hybrid strains that can withstand harsh weather conditions and produce higher-value yields. "A fortuneteller once told me that I'd lead a busy and hard life, but whoever crossed my path would have luck," he says. "No matter how hard I work, my life cannot be better so I try my best to bring luck to those I meet."
Chen has brought luck to many people. Thanks to his instruction, Liao Kun-hai was able to turn the unproductive land he took over from his father into a profitable watermelon plantation. Now his 26-year-old son Liao Wen-pin is following in his footsteps and has made a fortune by utilizing one of Chen's newly improved species to successfully grow square watermelons. "Our square watermelons each sell for about NT$500 (US$15), compared with NT$100 (US$3) for normal round ones. And they have been well received in Taiwan and Singapore," the younger Liao says. "That further consolidates my belief--good quality and uniqueness give our produce an edge over foreign competition--and my interest in pursuing farming as a career."
Write to Kelly Her at kelly@mail.gio.gov.tw