On December 30th, the Council of Agriculture (COA) once again put the spotlight on Taiwan’s outstanding researchers in the field of agriculture with its annual “National Agriculture Science Award”. This year, in recognition of those who have made contributions to R&D related to agricultural production, living and environments, the “Community Forestry Research Team” led by NPUST Professor Mei-hui Chen was awarded the “Most Outstanding Team” award.
Over the long term, the Community Forest Research Team has been conducting locally-based agriculture strategies that involve interdisciplinary teams coming from government, industry and academia, and which apply ideas that are derived from the Satoyama Initiative. For 15 years, along three of the main roads that stretch into the mountainous areas of the rural Pingtung and Kaohsiung, the crew from NPUST has been working hard to improve the environment by employing eco-tourism, under forest economies, circular agriculture and “Level 6” industry. Thanks to their work, in the Liugui District of Kaohsiung, the first “community operated” nature conservation in Taiwan was established.
The research team has been working with local residents to develop under forest economic practices, such as bee raising and mushroom and herb cultivation. From production techniques to the cultivation of talent, training classes are offered to residents of communities from all around the country. The university has also set up an on-campus under forest bee raising site and a station to train people how to cultivate mushrooms in wooden logs.
The approach developed by the NPUST researchers covers all the details right through to marketing services and sales — and through value-adding processing techniques they have developed such products as “vegetarian mushroom floss”, “vegetable vitality soup”, and “multigrain popsicles”.
The success of each individual project depends quite considerably on human factors. However, with the hopes of seeing the best results, Professor Chen has been leading teams to persistently come in and help out with the community operations and the development of production. Together with the tribes’ people, they are striving for better and more diversified forest economies through the application of Satoyama practices. The Council of Agriculture’s awarding of the 2019 National Agricultural Science “Most Outstanding Team” award to the NPUST team not only affirms the actual success of their work, but also brings a sense of honor to the university body as a whole.
