Chien Shun-yih looks out over his withering tea fields in picturesque Meishan Township (梅山) in Chiayi County and lets out a sigh.
A once-in-a-century water shortage last year followed by torrential rain this year have decimated his crop and left Taiwan’s tea farmers scrambling to adapt to extreme weather changes.
“Climate is the thing we can least control in managing our tea plantation,” the 28-year-old Chien said. “We really do rely on the sky to eat.”
Photo: Ann Wang, REUTERS
Taiwan’s tea output does not come close to matching China’s or India’s, but what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality, especially the high mountain premium oolong variety that Meishan specializes in.
Tea has been grown in the mountains around Meishan since the 19th century. The industry matured and expanded under Japanese rule from 1895 to 1945.
Chien, who returned to run the family plantation after his father died of cancer four years ago, is now working on coping strategies for extreme weather, including hacking deep into the undergrowth to look for pools to pipe water to the fields.
Lin Shiou-ruei (林秀橤), a National Taiwan University researcher tasked by the government with helping Meishan’s farmers, said that another problem the extreme weather brings is pests that attack the young tea buds.
“Pests love the dry and the heat,” she said at her experimental fields. “Previously it would not be hot until around May to July, but now in April it’s already really hot.”
Lin is working to educate farmers about the pests that proliferate with climate change, and how to identify and manage them.
Tea Research and Extension Station manager Tsai Hsien-tsung (蔡憲宗), who supervises the project, said that they began monitoring weather changes in the tea country four years ago and have already seen the crop’s flavor alter with the seasons.
“Temperatures are going up; rainfall is going down. There is less moisture in the air,” he said. “Tea is very sensitive.”
However, whether what is happening in Taiwan’s tea country is directly related to climate change remains an area for debate.
Chen Yung-ming (陳永明), who heads the climate change division at the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction, said it was not possible to blame reduced rainfall on climate change.
“We can only say that the chance of continuous drought will increase,” he said.
Chien estimated that he would only harvest 600kg of tea this year, half of last year’s crop, due to water shortages and rain, but said that he is determined not to be beaten.
“These trees are what fed me and brought me up. In return I want to try my best to take good care of them too,” he said.
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