The bustling night markets of Taipei, where you can buy everything from papaya to fish, attract visitors year-round. However, as food prices fall as a result of farmers producing more food than can be bought, merchants and farmers are struggling. Frustration over not being able to sell their crops for profit is felt by farmers like Chang Mu-lin, a banana grower in Pingtung County.
“No matter what I grow, I end up losing money,” Chang laments.
Local producers of bread and noodles, who rely on imported products like wheat, are also struggling as production costs increase because of rising global commodity prices.
“When wheat prices began rising week by week ... it felt like I was being strangled,” said Adama Shih, a baker in Changhua County.
While Taiwan’s undernourished population remains at a modest 10 to 19 percent, such economic pressures have prompted continued efforts by the government to help farmers produce profitable harvests.
Efforts emphasize educating a new generation of farmers about organic farming, addressing water shortages that threaten crop yields and introducing programs to conserve energy during the farming process.
Many younger Taiwanese farmers are shifting to organic and sustainable methods. While Taiwan has imported organic products in the past, the government has been encouraging local food production by setting up organic zones in a number of municipalities. The government hopes that the zones will result in greater investment in agriculture. By subsidizing production through these zones, the government aims to reduce reliance on imported food products that have become more expensive over the years.
Consumers and farmers in Taiwan also face an emerging water shortage challenge — 70 percent of water in the country is used in agricultural production. Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) is promoting the use of recycled water to deal with water shortages through treatment plants, like the recently established plant in Greater Kaohsiung that treat used water with chemicals so that it can be reused. Meanwhile, the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau works with farmers to teach them about water and soil conservation.
The Agriculture Research Institute based in Greater Taichung is also working to reduce water use by breeding crops that require less water to grow.
Sub-Saharan Africa could serve as an example for future efforts to save water: Farmers in the region are already recycling water for use in agriculture. In Kenya, women are working with the UN Environment Program and the World Agroforestry Center to build tanks on their roofs that help collect and store rainwater.
This is just one of many inspiring innovations discovered by researchers from the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet project. We traveled across 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, unearthing environmentally sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty, which culminated in a comprehensive report titled State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet.
Our research findings included innovations to increase water security.
“Rain-fed areas with low agricultural yields, such as much of Africa, hold the biggest potential for getting more ‘crop per drop,’” says Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project.
Taiwan’s efforts, like the efforts of communities highlighted in the report, show that agricultural and environmental challenges create opportunities for innovative solutions to some of our most pressing environmental and development challenges.
Danielle Nierenberg is project director of the Nourishing the Planet (www.Nourishingthe-Planet.org) project. Graham Salinger is a research intern for Nourishing the Planet.
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