It has been two weeks since a 73-year-old farmer surnamed Chen began to station herself in her millet fields in a Taitung County village to safeguard her crops from marauding sparrows.
It is now harvest season for millet in Taimali Township (太麻里) — one of the nation’s key granaries. In Chen’s fields, golden millet spikes shine under the sun, luring hungry birds.
Watching the crops her family worked hard to cultivate, Chen said “now is the real hard work” to safeguard the fields from the hordes of sparrows after her precious seeds.
PHOTO: CNA
“The army will sweep through as soon as I lose focus,” said the woman sitting on a stool, holding an umbrella and a bell to scare the birds away.
Chen has erected as many and various bird-scaring devices as she can in her fields, including scarecrows and a network of “alarm strings” hung with old election banners, empty cans and bottles and even a national flag.
Upon spotting possible attackers, she pulls the strings, saying that “one minute too slow and all our painstaking efforts are wasted.”
Chen stays in the fields from before dawn until after sunset.
There are still two more days before the harvest, she said, adding that until then, she cannot leave her post.
Millet is used mostly by indigenous people to make wine.
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