I think the first-class people in the world are only farmers, while scholars is at the bottom.
The first-class farmers cultivate hundreds Mu of farmland, followed by 70-80Mu and 50-60Mu.
Born in poor families, cultivating and harvesting with diligence,the farmers raise people in the world.
If there were no farmers in the world, all people in the world would starve to death (Zheng Xie~ A Book sent to Brother)
In the past, a farmer’s income might come from rice planting or other agricultural products.
At dawn, the farmer pushes a three-wheeled cart
and carries the vegetables and fruits to be sold to the market or the roadside for sales,
which, on one hand, can meet everyone’s physiological demand, and make everyone have a full and healthy diet,
like Zheng Xie said, “if there were no farmers in the world, all people in the world would starve to death.”
So we can see how important agriculture is for the survival of people.
Through this Cyberfair project, we fully feel that “water” is the root for the development of agriculture, if there is no full and high-quality water, how can grains be produced and life be sustained?
Especially, if there is insufficient agricultural irrigation water, the farmers cannot survive
and it is impossible for Taiwan to achieve the objective of increasing self-sufficiency rate of grain.
Therefore, the problem of agricultural irrigation water is worth being emphasized by everyone!。 |
 Crop self-sufficient rate
There are more and more environmental pollutions at present, and the water lacking crises that cannot be expected are more and more serious! A few days ago, Council of Agriculture declared to increase the crop self-sufficient rate from 32% at present to 40% in 2020, and one of the strategies is to re-cultivate 200,000ha of fallowing farmland, but if there is no insufficient agricultural water how to achieve this objective? Some scholars point out that to guarantee the food security, the FAO should increase the irrigation area and irrigation water.
Insufficient irrigation water
In Taiwan, once there is a lack of water, the agricultural water is always allocated first. For 20 years, the agricultural water has only maintained at the lowest standard 10.6 billion MT (note), and some farmlands are forced to be fallowed or are lack of water. Once further allocated, the agricultural water will be insufficient immediately, where to find water to re-cultivate the fallowing farmland?
Multi-functional purposes of farming water
(1) Irrigation water can create production efficiency and ensure sufficient food.
(2)(2) Have ecological and living function benefits. Ecological benefits include flood retention, conservancy of underground water, reducing social cost of ground subsidence and other functions; the benefit in improving life quality includes adjusting microclimate, purifying air and water quality, increasing rural leisure recreation and high-quality landscape etc.
Realizing reasonable farming water use
Water Resources Agency points out that the problem is insufficient water, and any place with water saving should be reviewed. The rotation irrigation and fallowing are not systematical, some farmlands are fallowed, but the water consumption is not reduced, “agricultural water allocation is out of link with the fallowing water, and this is unreasonable.” The water saved in the reasonable water consumption in agriculture is useful property. He believes that water conservancy might play the role of water resources management in the future to promote the water saving feedback system.
Water Resources Agency officials generally support that agricultural water should support the industrial water within the reasonable scope, but if drought occurs in the future, the agricultural water must be further allocated. On the other hand, there should be further strategy on how to sustain enough agricultural water; otherwise the food security will just be a slogan.。
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 Utilization of water resources |
Cizaipijun aqueduct was first built in the Japanese occupation period. Excavated artificially, it is the first official waterway in Taiwan and also the second largest irrigation system in Changhua Country. Taking water of Jhuoshui River from Xizhou Township to irrigate the whole southwest of Changhua and flowing through Xizhou Township, Pitou Township, Erlin Township, Fangyuan Township, etc. It has a total length of about 23km, origins from Xizhou Township and flows into the sea at Fangyuan Township. With a drainage area nearly 9000 ha, Cizaipijun aqueduct flows along Sisia Road, an important west-east road in the township, and is a typical water-based plain settlement type. It is also an important water conservancy system for the industrial development in the country.
“Xizhou appeared only after Cizaipijun aqueduct”
Xizhou Township was a shoal between the flows of Jhuoshui River, so it was named as “Xizhou”.
The ancestors had reclaimed land here in the Qing Dynasty. The explorers at that time should not only struggle with water, but also should worry about their livelihood. Until 1901 when Cizaipijun aqueduct was opened and in 1911 when Jhuoshui River embankment was built, people could introduce the sandy water of Jhuoshui River for irrigation because of Cizaipijun aqueduct. Because the sandy water was full of sediment, the farmers used muddy water to supplement the nutrients of farmland, improve the soil condition and increase fertility, and also make their farmland full of sandy water and deposit soil in the slack farming season. This made the gravel land where only drought-enduring crops could be planted become fertile farmland.
The agricultural crops growing in such land and nourished by Jhuoshui River are fragrant and sweet. The water in Jhuoshui River is rich in trace elements, and the rice is both fragrant and chewy compared with that produced in the farmland irrigated with fresh water, and Xizhou Township is famous in Taiwan for “muddy water rice”.
Because of the passing of the waterway, people gradually got together in the agricultural township Xizhou Township. The waterway does not only breed generations of Xizhou people, but also produces high-quality agricultural products and provides rich food for Taiwan.
In recent years, in the development of CTSP-4 and Kuo Kuang Petrochemical Plant, it is planned to introduce the agricultural irrigation water as the industrial water, causing the strong protest of the local residents, and the allocation of water resources is concerned by various circles.
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After visiting the CTSP project and hearing the interpretation of Teacher Tsai we were surprised that AU Optronics Corp. planned to establish factory in CTSP-4, but finally no factory was built, but there was only I-Ming Sanitary Materials Co., Ltd. which produces kneecap. We thought it should not be a high-tech park! From the words of Teacher Tsai, we heard the helplessness of the farmers in the protest of Alliance Against Water-Jacking, but in order to protect their farmland, they resisted regardless of anything, and finally the government paid attention to their invoice and ordered to suspend the water diversion project.
The government developed CTSP-4 for the local economy, and intended to improve local employment. Luckily, the government finally heard the farmers’ voice. The old farmers protested only to protect their homeland, and it is expected that the transformed CTSP-4 will boost the economy of the local places and Changhua County!
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