Chirping sparrows are a constant headache for farmers, who fear more than anything that the birds will pilfer their rice paddy and millet farm harvests. The Taitung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station has come up with a “solar-powered dummy bird repellent.” Experimental farmland using the repellent had a 30 percent higher harvest rate than the average farm. Other advantages include protecting the environment by saving energy and economizing on labor.
Tseng Hsiang-en, an assistant researcher at the station, says that Taitung County has the greatest amount of farmland devoted to the cultivation of millet in all of Taiwan. Millet is also a special traditional crop among Aborigines, Tseng says. During the month before harvest, however, millet is often picked at by birds, Tseng says, adding that if no preventative measures are taken as much as 95 percent of the harvest can be lost.
Conventional farmers can only hire workers to physically drive away the birds, which Tseng says can cost up to NT$39,000 for each worker per hectare during a single harvest. Tseng says it is excruciating labor because each worker must stand under the sun for at least eight hours every day. Hopefully the new device will help lessen the burden for farmers, Tseng says. In three consecutive experimental millet harvests, the station discovered that preventative measures during the spring harvest for Asian rice were highly effective, Tseng says, adding that rice farms using the repellent had a 30 percent greater harvest than farms using only humans to drive away birds.
Photo: Chang Tsun-wei, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者張存薇
The bird repellent uses a solar-powered panel as its power source and stores power in an accumulator, allowing the device to run autonomously in the field. As soon as the first rays of sunlight hit at dawn, the circuit board detects even the slightest bit of power being generated in the solar-powered panel, and immediately flips a switch to start up a DC motor to power the scarecrow’s mechanized arms. A conducting wire is wrapped around the ends of the arms, which pulls on a noisemaker that makes sounds to imitate the way a human would try to scare off birds. At dusk the electricity switches off and the devices stops running.
In the event of unremitting cloudy or rainy conditions, Tseng says that, if the solar-powered panel does not produce enough electricity, an internal battery system provides a continuous power source. A utility model patent was acquired for the technology, which has been transferred to manufacturers, Tseng says.
(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat)
吱吱喳喳的麻雀總是讓農民傷透腦筋,水稻田、小米田最怕麻雀「搶收」。台東區農業改良場研發「太陽能人型驅鳥器」,試驗田收成率比一般田多三成,又有環保節能、省人力的優點。
台東農改場助理研究員曾祥恩說明,台東是台灣小米種植面積最大的縣份,小米更是原住民部落傳統特色作物,可是小米在收穫前一個月極易遭鳥類啄食,如果完全不防制,損失率高達九成五。
他說,傳統農民只能雇工以人力驅趕,但換算一公頃雇工每期成本高達新台幣三萬九千元,且一天至少要在太陽下工作八小時以上,實在很辛苦,所以研發這組設備,希望減輕農民負擔。連續三期稻作試驗中,也可發現水稻春作防制效果佳,採用太陽能人型驅鳥器的稻田,比人工驅鳥的稻田收成率多三成。
「太陽能人型驅鳥器」是以太陽能板發電,並可將電能儲存於電瓶,使機器在田間獨立自主運作。早上天色開始轉亮時,電路板可偵測太陽能板的微量發電,立刻啟動開關、以直流馬達驅動機械手臂,而手臂端綁上導線、可以拉動遠處的響片發出聲響,模擬人工驅鳥方式,黃昏後即停止發電及運作。
曾祥恩說,若遇連續陰雨,太陽能板發電量若不足,可透過內建電池系統持續供應電力,這項技術已獲新型專利保護,並將技術移轉給廠商。
(自由時報記者張存薇)
Runbing, a delicacy with a rich history in worship customs, is made from a thin, crepe-like wrapper used to wrap a cooked filling into a roll. Runbing in some regions is sometimes referred to as a spring roll, but it is important to note that it is not fried like traditional spring rolls with crispy brown exteriors. The runbing wrapper is made by spreading a thin layer of high-gluten flour batter evenly onto a hot pan. The resulting white wrapper is soft and flexible. 潤餅的歷史悠久,長久以來人們會在祭拜時享用,是用薄薄的麵皮包裹煮熟的餡料。有的地方習慣將潤餅稱作春捲,但和傳統炸得外皮金黃酥脆的春捲不同,潤餅不須油炸即可食用。潤餅皮的作法是將高筋麵糰在熱鍋上均勻塗薄薄一層,外皮呈白色,柔軟有韌度。 high-gluten flour (n. phr.) 高筋麵粉 flexible (adj.)
A: I’ve heard that the final episode of K-drama “Queen of Tears” also broke the record. B: With a high rating of 27.3 percent, the show replaced “Crash Landing on You” to become tvN’s most-watched drama. A: Is it the most-watched drama of all time? B: It’s at No. 3, only behind JTBC’s “The World of the Married” at No. 1 and “Reborn Rich” at No. 2. A: Let’s watch it over the weekend. A: 聽說《淚之女王》大結局還打破收視紀錄。 B: 該劇最高收視率27.3%,超越《愛的迫降》,成為tvN電視台新霸主! A: 它是歷年收視率最高的韓劇嗎? B: 它是第3名唷,冠亞軍則是JTBC的《夫婦的世界》、《財閥家的小兒子》。 A: 我們週末就來追劇吧。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Parts of the United States are experiencing a rare natural phenomenon with the simultaneous emergence of two enormous adjacent broods of periodical cicadas. The noisy bugs began in April to pop out of the ground in significant numbers in the southernmost locations of their geographical distribution. The total count of cicadas is forecast to exceed a trillion by the time it is all over in their northernmost locales. These two broods — one concentrated in US Midwestern states and the other in the South and Midwest — emerge together only once every 221 years. WHAT IS A CICADA? Cicadas are relatively large insects —
The story of personal audio equipment begins in the late 1800s, shortly after the invention of the telephone and the loudspeaker. Businessmen recognized that with these technologies, live music could be shared with people far away from a concert hall. However, loudspeakers in public places can be an annoyance, which is still the case today. This problem led to the invention of the Electrophone system by a British company. The Electrophone used telephone lines to deliver live performances from theaters and opera houses across London. The Electrophone service was a subscription-based model where subscribers rented special listening devices similar