Thanks to research by experts from the Taiwan Agriculture Research Institute (TARI), farmers will be able to consult their computers to decide what to plant next season.
The TARI Soil Research Center, under the Council of Agriculture, was inaugurated on Thursday and will become home to more than 700,000 soil samples collected from 800,000 hectares of farmland around Taiwan proper and as well as Kinmen, Penghu, Green Island and Orchid Island.
The sample collection began some 10 years ago and so far the TARI Soil Research Center has collected more than 500,000 samples, said Guo Horng-yuh (
Guo and his fellow researchers will study the 700,000 soil samples based on 24 criteria of chemical analysis, mainly to determine the soil's fertility and whether it is suitable to be farmed, and what to plant to yield the best harvest.
After the "soil census" is completed, farmers should be able to use computers to key in the particular code number of their farmland.
The research center will also tell farmers whether their land is chemically polluted, whether the soil is too dense or too loose, too acidic or alkaline, or too dry or too wet to cultivate.
According to Guo, the center collects samples in Taiwan proper using 6.25 hectares as a unit, while for Kinmen the center uses one hectare as a unit.
Unlike in Taiwan proper, where soil can be nourished by flooding, soil in Kinmen is scarce and precious since, according to Guo, it took about 90 million years for Kinmen's granite surface to erode, mainly through the effects of the wind. The soil in Kinmen is an average of about 30cm thick. In general, land in Kinmen is more acidic and loosely packed, making it suitable only for a narrow range of agricultural uses.
Penghu is another story. It took about 10 million years for Penghu to secure a layer of soil of the same thickness as Kinmen's, Guo said. The difference, however, is that the soil on Penghu is much more fertile than that of Kinmen; nearly the best land in the nation.
Despite the fertility of the soil, farmers in Penghu face water shortages and strong winds.
Guo said Penghu should develop tourism instead of relying on farmers who are doomed to spend twice the effort for half the result.
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