Guantian (官田), Tainan, the Paddy Field of Water Caltrop and My Agriculture Dream
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About Guantian and the paddy field
Guantian (官田), a district of Tainan, produces the biggest amount of water caltrop (菱角) in Taiwan. It is an aqueous crop with the fruits of hard horn shells, grown in paddy field which often has rotation with rice. Before I came to New Zealand, a farm in Guantian was my last workplace in Taiwan. It was located near the famous scenic spot, Hulupi (葫蘆埤), an artificial reservoir since 1770.
The farm grew water caltrop and also sold other local crops to a distributor. I did not stayed there for long, but it was the period of time when I had a chance to observe the network of a farming business which people of diverse backgrounds involved. During that time I decided to get married and to begin the unknown adventure in NZ.
It was at the apex of my passion for agriculture, especially for organic horticulture, but I also realized I could not survive in the business without abundant capital and the solid connection to the local community. At the moment I have been away from agricultural career for a while after 10 years in NZ. Not every effort came to fruit. But these photos, the pieces of my memory from those precious days, is the gem that remains.
Harvesting water caltrop on a small “boat”Most of harvesters wore waders.I had quite a few admin jobs for the farm and only walked into the field once or twice when some media came to interview my boss and they normally wanted some good photos with more people beside the crop.All the local growers / harvesters around our farm office were over their fifties. It was seldom to know that any younger people would join the business.Seedlings of water caltropThe pink things are the eggs of Apple Snails (福壽螺). It was introduced into Taiwan during 1980s’, originally as food, but soon became a nasty invasive species that feeds various plants. You can see their pink eggs in paddy field everywhere.When water caltrop harvesting is over, some farmers proceed to grow rice while some may just leave the field fallow.Planting rice seedlings by hands is not a common practice. But if a planter may get stuck in the field or it is simply too expensive to hire one for a small-sized field, it is the occasion for this old method. There is a lot of bending for the task. It requires a strong posterior chain and core to avoid spinal injury.Stilts (高蹺鴴)??High speed railDuring the farm enters an off-season after a harvesting time; I guess that was one of the ideas to make some extra money though I had no clue where did they go in the end.A rarely foggy dayA brood of baby rats found in a barrel of waste rice
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