Shu-huei is an organic jujube farmer in Gongguan Township, Miaoli — a rural province located in north Taiwan—who incorporates sustainable organic farming methods to combat climate change effects and promote the unique Hakka culture in the community. We spoke to her to learn about how she seeks to promote jujube farming while battling the negative effects of climate change on her farm.
Gongguan Township, Miaoli, is a remote rural town that suffers from many of the problems that other rural communities in Taiwan face—namely, a lack of labor for farms and an aging population. Shu-huei explains that she chose organic farming on her jujube farm to “maintain basic environment health and to also keep the farmers themselves healthy . . and focus on education for kids.” She believes educating the youth to get them interested in farming is an approach that can help solve the aging population crisis facing farming in the community.
Gongguan Township is a rural community that has traditionally grown jujube for their livelihoods, and Shu-huei, although originally from Taipei has made herself right at home here and is now indistinguishable from the other members of this community in terms of her love and commitment to finding solutions to its problems. Yes, that’s right. Although one can’t tell by the passion that she has for farming, Shu-huei wasn’t always a farm girl.
Instead, she was a bureaucratic government worker who got tired of sitting behind a desk all day and decided to pursue her original love of nature and farming. She sees organic farming of jujube as a way to educate about and practice sustainability, health, and taking care of the environment. She believes so much in educating the public about organic farming that she is part of a cooperative that works with elementary schools that teach young students about how to practice organic farm methods and their benefits to the environment.
Shu-hei takes pride in her community’s reputation in jujube farming. However, this farming community struggles with uncertain harvests because of erratic climate due to climate change and poor marketing methods. Jujube is one of Taiwan’s most valuable crops. It has been grown in Gongguan Township for at least 120 years. Through the hard work of Taiwanese farmers and agricultural experts, the crop has been transformed from a tiny and sour-tasting fruit to a sweet and large crop that is popular throughout Taiwan. The country is now famous for producing some of the best-tasting and best-looking varieties of jujube.
The fruit is typically dried and used as a condiment or traditional medicine. But Shu-hui tries to diversify her farm activities to protect herself from low prices and climate-change-related issues that jujube farmers face. According to her, “In recent years farmers have faced climate change, so it’s more difficult to grow the crop . . .. For example, if it’s . . . too hot in spring or if they have heavy rains in summer during the harvest season, too much crop is lost.”
As a result, she doesn’t just grow jujube on her tiny one-hectare farm. She has incorporated the cultivation and selling of several traditional herbs, such as mint, marigold flowers, lavender, and rosemary. In addition to this, she practices directly selling to consumers. For example, instead of relying on middlemen to sell her products to, she establishes personal and direct relationships with restaurants to sell her produce.
However, the farming labor shortage remains a challenge for her farm and jujube farmers throughout Miaoli. But this problem has been partially solved by the foreign labor exchange program, where foreign visitors work in exchange for a place to sleep. She says that while the pandemic made things difficult, last year things started improving. Speaking of the 2023 labor exchange program, she explains, “This year we continue to have volunteers to help . . . about four or five, which is enough for our needs. They do harvesting or weeding. But we provide the food and [lodgings] for them.”
Besides this, she also relies on value-added products to increase the level of income that she can earn. She relies on the traditional Hakka culture for inspiration for her products. For example, she uses Indian gooseberry to make a fizzy drink, which the Hakka typically use for medicinal purposes. According to Shu-huei, “Miaoli is more than 90% Hakka”, and local Hakka culture and history is something that she takes a deep interest in, especially in terms of how it can be recorded and preserved.
In promoting the preservation of Hakka culture and history, she even participated in an interview investigation with the elderly to uncover the oral history and culture of Miaoli. The most interesting information they uncovered was related to the traditional irrigation system that runs through the community According to her, Miaoli has “an irrigation system [that has been] established over 180 years” that is still operating and even irrigates some of the jujube farms up to this day.
This is the type of cultural continuation that she wants to see and working to preserve. Shu-huei says the reason she’s interested in educating people through her organic jujube farm is because there’s a need “to keep the traditions and develop new meanings for the current inhabitants and the new generation.”
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, September 30). A Taiwanese farmer battles the effects of climate change from her jujube farm |
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