Even up 'till fifty years ago, people in Taiwan believed apples were invested with potent healing power," says Professor Lin Chung-mao (林中茂), president of the National Chiayi Institute of Agriculture (NCIA). ''Apples were so precious that eating them was a privilege reserved for the ill and the elderly. They were also esteemed gifts for valued friends and people in high places."
In fact, an apple then was very expensive. The price of fifteen red, round, unblemished apples was equal to the price of an ounce of pure gold. These much-coveted apples were imported from the United States. Taiwan also produced apples, but they were small, tart, and largely inedible. To profit from the high prices, farmers moved in droves to Lishan in central Taiwan, where the highland climate was more suited to apple-growing. Experimenting with different strains and techniques, growers were able to produce big and sweet apples, and market them in competition with U.S. apples. Today, people can easily have an apple a day if they want, and at US$.37 to US$.56 an apple, it would take sackfuls to match the price of an ounce of gold.
Fruitful island – an agricultural display at the Taipei World Trade Center highlights some of Taiwan's fifty varieties of fruits.
Taiwan's farmers have known for a long time that money grows on trees. In the 1950s, only about 50,000 acres of the more than 2 million acres of cultivated land was used to grow fruit. By 1989, the figure had jumped to over 540,000 acres. With an eye on overseas markets, farmers grew bananas and citrus fruits, as well as pineapples. By the end of the 1960s, for example, bananas were the island's third largest export, next to textiles and metals, and contributed 9 percent of the annual foreign exchange earnings.
Economic incentives were such a great draw that the commercial cultivation of these fruits seemed well worth its high cost. But the pattern of fruit production has been one of extremes – going from scarcity to abundance, and from steep to dirt-cheap prices. Taiwan soon lost out to tropical countries like the Philippines, where the cultivation of pineapples and bananas was easier and cheaper. By 1988, Taiwan's fruit exports were insignificant, accounting for less than one-half percent of foreign exchange earnings.
Fortunately for people in the fruit business, economic development at home led to a bigger appetite for a greater variety of fruits that not only looked good and tasted sweet, but were also attractively packaged. What used to be considered exotic imported fruits, such as Sunkist oranges, grapefruit, cherries, and grapes, became available locally, although their scarcity created a seller's market. But consumers had the money to pay the high prices charged.
In response to the growing demand, farmers began to produce a diverse range of fruits – and at the same time, they received indispensable assistance from universities and the government. As Professor Kang Yeou-der (康有德) of the College of Agriculture at National Taiwan University says, "In the past twenty years, we sent five expeditions around the world to collect different species and superior varieties of fruit for cultivation in Taiwan." Kang, a horticulture professor and the director of the college's highland farming section, was twice a member of these teams.
Today, Taiwan grows more than fifty kinds of fruits. But farmers generally remain captive to fruit fads, cultivating the fruits that are in demand and command high prices. When overproduction drives prices down, they shift to another fruit, a costly process requiring considerable lead time. Even in the cultivation of well-loved pome fruits such as apples, peaches, and pears, local fruit growers have had problems. Consumers prefer fruits imported from the U.S., where nature has as big a hand as science in the cultivation of luscious pome fruits. As of 1987, Taiwan was consuming 104,000 tons of apples annually, only 16 percent of which was grown locally.
"High prices are not a problem at all," says Leu Min-hsiung (呂明雄), a horticulture professor at the NCIA. "Overproduction of fruit continues to be the big problem. Only a greater emphasis on high quality rather than quantity can help improve the farmer's livelihood."
Traditional farming and management skills fall short of the expertise required for the cultivation of high-yield, high-quality fruit varieties. Industrialization has led to an influx of people from the farms to the cities, and increased wages have left farm production in fewer hands. In 1953, farm families made up more than 55 percent of Taiwan's population, and they contributed 38 percent of the nation's income. By 1988, although farmers made up less than 14 percent of the population, they were still responsible for ensuring a steady and abundant supply of food for the whole island.
A 1980 census established that less than 9 percent of Taiwan's farming population of 800,000 were fully engaged in agriculture. The majority of farmers worked only part time on farming because they had found other more profitable activities. In 1964, the contribution of the agricultural and industrial sectors to the nation's income were still about even, at 28-29 percent each. By 1988, the share of agriculture had dropped to about 6 percent, whereas industry's share had risen to almost 46 percent.
Despite this decline in the number of farmers, the government is encouraging an increase in their productivity. "Taiwan plans to maintain a top-quality agricultural nucleus of 80,000 farmers to meet the food demands of a growing population and to offset the effects of aging and labor migration to the cities," says Professor Lin Chung-mao. "Developing high levels of competence among these farmers is a top priority for the government. "
The task will not be easy. Farming in Taiwan is tradition-bound, and farmers as a rule are conservative and reluctant to take new risks. Since greater value is placed on field labor over classroom work, the majority of farmers have not gone beyond secondary education. But farmers have come to the hard realization that they need more stability and more support, even basic bookkeeping and accounting skills. Fortunately, agricultural education has begun to cover the immediate and practical subjects they require.
Arming farmers with competence in technical and management skills, updated scientific information, and the ability to be innovative is the major goal of agricultural education. Says Tsay Juih-tsair (蔡巨才), an associate professor of farm management at the NCIA: "Fruit-growing is not in its sunset years, as many shortsighted people think. But it's true only highly efficient farmers can survive. Farmers are becoming increasingly vulnerable to rapid economic change. Agricultural education cannot tell them which trees will bear money in this evolving situation. It can only help them acquire abilities which modern farmers must possess – advanced farming skills, sensitivity to market conditions, and the techniques of analysis and decision-making."
Agricultural education can take many forms, from a children's class on plant life in the village school to graduate research in the laboratory. Much of agricultural education during Taiwan's early stages of development went on outside the classroom. The most effective was the training given to farmers by extension workers from farmers' associations who demonstrated new methods and equipment, and discussed the benefits of planting new crops. In 1952 the Four-H Club was introduced from the U.S., with a big and important difference: It existed not only in schools but also in villages, attracting children and young adults aged nine to twenty-four, and reinforced the value of agriculture. First set up in Chiayi by the NCIA, Four-H Clubs are still extremely active.
During Japanese colonial rule (1895-1945), the Japanese instituted formal agricultural education, but with the primary aim of filling Japan's needs. The highlands were tested for the cultivation of Japanese apples, peaches, and pears, and a rudimentary network was set up linking experimental stations with public schools via extension workers. The network survives until today, with agriculture schools on one hand, and government research institutions such as provincial experiment stations and agriculture improvement stations on the other.
In 1919 the Chiayi Agricultural and Forestry Public School was established. One of the earliest schools specializing in agriculture, its development mirrors that of Taiwan's agricultural economy. In 1951 it became a provincial vocational school, and in 1965 it was renamed the National Chiayi Institute of Agriculture. The NCIA today provides research fellows to the provincial experiment stations along with other universities and junior colleges such as National Taiwan University, National Chung-Hsing University, Chinese Culture University, and the National Pingtung Research Institute.
Junior college and vocational school graduates make up the staff of improvement stations, acting as extension agents and assuming a farmer-supportive, intermediary role between farmers in the fields and agricultural research institutes, such as the provincial experiment stations. "In the past," Lin says, "farmers' associations were the key extension agencies. Because the staff was limited not only in number but also in quality, the results were disappointing. Extension work is now largely in the hands of agricultural improvement stations."
Universities perform a pivotal role in agricultural education. For example, the agricultural colleges at National Taiwan University and National Chung-Hsing University provide high-level technical and research personnel to other agricultural colleges, and to experiment and improvement stations. They also provide a consultation service for extension workers.
For instance, research work at the College of Agriculture at National Taiwan University is undertaken with fruit farmers in mind, and it seeks solutions to the problems they encounter in the different phases of fruit tree cultivation. The college specializes in the research of new and improved methods in areas such as propagation, plant nutrient analysis, and fructification. It also does specific studies on plant growth phases, the renovation of varieties, and crop breeding. The college has gained recognition for many of its research results such as the propagation of disease-free seedlings of bananas and strawberries by tissue culture, delayed germination, dwarfing, and the propagation of disease-resistant strains.
Rapid advances in agricultural science and technology also demand that farmers receive education beyond the secondary level. To this end, the universities send resident instructors to the villages to offer college-level programs with increasing emphasis on extension work, vocational teacher training, and the development of specialists in fields such as pest control, soil testing, and fruit growing. "Universities solve real problems in the field," says Kang Yeou-der.
Professor Kang Yeou-der stresses the link between academia and fruit farmers through extension work – "Universities solve real problems in the field."
The NCIA also has a variety of programs at the college level, and has contributed over 4,000 mid to top-level personnel to government agricultural institutes in the county and provincial levels. The school offers two-year and five-year specialization courses, and a three-year course for junior high school and vocational school graduates. Farmers can also go to the institute's night schools, which offer a three or five-year program covering basic courses such as agricultural machinery engineering, agricultural economics, horticulture, hydraulic engineering, forestry, and plant protection.
But agricultural education is not without its problems. Enrollment in the programs has fallen short of government expectations, causing a serious setback in the formation of the envisaged 80,000-strong nucleus of farmers. One negative factor is the limited job market for high-level agricultural research work in Taiwan, which has caused a large proportion of local graduates to look overseas. There is also a heavy concentration of men in agricultural extension work, because few of the married women who graduate in the field are able to combine family responsibilities with the extensive traveling involved with the job. Single women also find the travel and related arrangements more difficult to do than their male colleagues.
To attract more students, the NCIA set up three additional departments: agribusiness, farm management, and plant protection.
The agribusiness department trains management specialists in horticulture, fishery, and animal husbandry, while the farm management department centers on continuing education for young farmers.
The government shoulders the fees and living expenses of farm management students on the condition that they return to run their own farms for at least two years after graduation. Only then can they receive their diplomas. Students who wish to apply for admission to this program must have at least a year's farming experience, have completed their required military service (if male), and have a recommendation from the local farmers' association.
Popular choice – the carambola or star fruit, originally from Malaysia, is often used in juices and salads, and as a preserved fruit snack treat.
The department of plant protection was set up in 1987 in response to the serious shortage of specialists in pest control and ecology. Environmental protection has now garnered enough attention to merit study. It has led to the revaluation of the highland farming of pome fruits because it uses the slash-and-burn method, destroying valued forest trees and land. "Just let the mountains be," says Kuo Yin-kang (郭銀港), a horticulture lecturer at NCIA. "The key to future temperate fruit farming is the domestication of species more suited to Taiwan's environment."
The NCIA stresses the combination of field labor and formal education. Its programs involve classroom study and laboratory investigations, as well as supervised farm labor. As Professor Leu Min-hsiung points out, "Students are trained to work with farmers on experimental farms attached to the NCIA. More than one-third of our curriculum involves field work and interaction with farmers. "
Interaction with farmers lies at the heart of extension work, perhaps the most important contribution of agricultural education. It is a task that graduates often find daunting, since it involves winning the farmers' trust with a convincing demonstration of the merits of new methods. But even the most stubborn farmers will change their ways if the results mean a higher-quality yield and a livelihood with a future.
And the future seems assuring for some students like Pacekel-cugang, who is now in his final year in farm management. The eldest son of a farming family in an aboriginal village in Pingtung county, southern Taiwan, he entered the program with a mission. He says, "I packed the problems of the farms in my village and brought them with me. My family and the people in the village are waiting, and I know they will listen to what I say."