The government should promote the growth of Taiwanese oil millet, as the perennial grass is highly tolerant to drought and saline soil, sustainable development groups said on Thursday.
The crop is also flood-tolerant, the groups said, adding that rice could be replaced with oil millet during water shortages to help conservation efforts.
The plant used to be a staple of the Bunun people, before vanishing for half a century following the relocation of the Bunun after the 1941 Pasnanavan incident in Taitung County.
Photo: CNA
The Pasnanavan incident refers to a failed attempt by relocated Bunun to return to their mountain homes by attacking police stations of the then-Japanese colonial government.
The incident only steeled the decision of Japanese authorities in the region to complete the relocation of the Bunun of Pasnanavan to the plains.
The plant, which a young Bunun named Chiu Hsiao-cheng (邱曉徵) and his father reintroduced as a crop five years ago, was sent to Academia Sinica for analysis.
The crop was said to have the potential to be a staple, given the effects of climate change.
Moreover, oil millet had survived after being under water for four days during flooding in 2019, Chiu said.
Climate change has affected the distribution of water resources, said Ling Keng-hung (林耿弘), president of Taitung County’s Youth and Elderly Community Co-creation and Environment Protection Association.
With its high concentration of rice paddies, the first crop of each growing season in the upper fields of the Huadong Valley — the area between the Central Mountain Range and the Coastal Mountain Range, also known as the Hualien-Taitung Valley (花東縱谷) or the East Rift Valley — could be for growing oil millet or similar crops that have high economic value and do not need as much water, Ling said, adding that this would improve the conservation of water resources.
Huang Tzu-yun (黃子芸), an assistant researcher at the Taitung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station, said that the station is studying how to promote oil millet as a crop, as it has high nutritional value and is adaptable to climate change.
Academia Sinica Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology assistant researcher Hsu Tzu-fu (徐子富) said that during the most severe water shortage in half a century last year, oil millet was less affected than other crops that rely on copious amounts of water.
A perennial plant, oil millet can be harvested by scything it above the roots, with no need to reseed, Hsu said, adding that tilling is only required every three years.
Compared with rice paddies or wheat fields, which need to be tilled every 100 to 120 days, and six months respectively, oil millet fields have a much better carbon fixation rate, he said.
“We hope to work with US and Japanese academics and make a proposal to UNESCO to have oil millet considered a world cultural heritage,” he said.
“We hope that Taiwan could contribute, in some form, to help resolve potential global food supply crises,” he said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS