Technology and Value Innovation with Democratizing Technologies as Action Core
On a farmland at Jiadong Township, Pingtung County with many photovoltaic panels installed, there are dozens of fishermen and optoelectronic companies standing in the mud while listening to NCKU team explaining the phased achievement of the application of microalgae in the cultivation of the giant tiger prawn and asking various questions, from food throwing, water quality to growth cycle. In another afternoon, a guava garden at Dashe Dist., Kaohsiung City has held an activity for learning together planned and presented by around 40 guava farmers, who came from all places of Taiwan, to share their experiences and techniques of trimming branches, pruning and fertilization management after using photosynthetic bacteria earnestly.
The description above shows the daily situation of “Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Seeking for Common Good” & “Agriculture and Green Energy Symbiosis” project team (hereinafter called ‘NCKU AA&AG Team’): they are running between farmlands, fish farms and stock farms while sometimes giving technical supports as specialists and sometimes encouraging the farmers to take actions as their partners.
NCKU AA&AG Team started to pay attention to the issues of agriculture and animal husbandry wastes in 2018 and introduce microalgae and microorganisms. They hope to handle the problems of friendly farming and recycling in agriculture and animal husbandry on the basis of environmental sustainability. “However, it is not enough to only rely on the technical assistance of NCKU or other specialists.” “The key is the willingness and capabilities of the farmers and animal farmers. We need to cultivate their knowledge capital and action capital as well as their awareness as action subjects for environmental sustainability so that the action can last long,” said the Associate Professor, Chien, I-Ming, who is the principal investigator of the project. Hence, besides offering technical assistance, NCKU AA&AG Team also tries to empower the farmers and animal farmers in various ways.
Small and Beautiful Waste Handling Solutions for Animal Husbandry
“There are around 70% of pig farmers in Taiwan having small pig farms with less than 1,000 pigs. Their production and operation areas are nearly saturated. Often, they do not have sufficient funds and spaces to expand for the waste handling facilities,” said a researcher at NCKU, Chun, Yen-Chen.
NCKU AA&AG Team expects to use the cultivated algae to effectively reduce over 90% of COD in wastewater. Currently, this technology has been applied in 3 pig farms. “We hope to find a wastewater handling method for the pig farmers, which is affordable and effective and uses the existing system, so that this method can be popularized,” said a researcher at NCKU, Chun, Yen-Chen.
While acquiring assistance from the professionals, NCKU AA&AG Team also encouraged students to devote to simple interpretation work. Hence, courses are planned for students to design promotion plans to make the concepts easier for pig farmers to understand.
Agriculture Use on Farmland, Green Cultivation under Photovoltaic Panels
After Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan, the Pingtung County Government has promoted the project of “Photovoltaic Farming to Reserve Water” to encourage the farmlands and fish farms on the field unfavorable for farming to introduce photovoltaic panels so as to reduce land subsidence caused by groundwater overdraft. However, in addition to landscape deserting, the residents must change their original ways of making a living if the land is only used for installing photovoltaic panels.
With the concept of “Saving Water Resources and Increase Land Use Efficiency”, Professor, Chang, Jo-Shu, has led NCKU AA&AG Team to design an algae cultivation platform under the photovoltaic panels. Algae can be used as feed to reduce the feeding cost, enhance harvest amount and purify the water so that water replacement is not required during the cultivation process so that water consumption can be reduced. Meanwhile, the local animal farmers also participated in the experiment. They have designed a farming tank built by HDPE and metallic tube. This new tank can be seen as the implementation of local knowledge. With fine tuning in the future, they can connect with the specialists from NCKU and build a cultivation plan suitable for local conditions.
Structure and Empowerment of Farmers’ Community
“Farmers Empowerment” is also a key focus of NCKU AA&AG Team. From the start of the project, NCKU AA&AG Team and its partners have started the courses for friendly agriculture and organized many friendly farmers and animal farmers caring about the environment in southern Taiwan as multiple regional and crop-based communities for learning together.
These communities have gradually shown voluntary actions of knowledge sharing, learning together and mutual assistance through the long-term companionship, guidance and field visits by the team. For example, the farmers in Penghu are enthusiastically observing and sharing net building techniques, keen on group buying various friendly materials and seedlings. This year, they even started to discuss how to integrate and provide local friendly food as lunch for students in Penghu. As for Pingtung, they even further established Community Microbial Materials Training and Promotion Center with the support from the County Government.
With community operations, farmers can exchange their friendly agricultural techniques to reduce the risks of failure and even make friends with a group of partners having the same willingness to make efforts to the land and go towards environmental sustainability.
Democratizing Technologies is the Action Core
Environmental sustainability is an important issue concerned contemporary. However, “all scientific and technological solutions are required to connect with practical social solutions, which is the core value of the project.” “Only when technologies can meet public needs and embed in the social, economic and culture network, there are opportunities to discover the true innovation brought by the connection,” said Associate Professor, Chien, I-Ming.
Project website: http://www.farming.chass.ncku.edu.tw
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University characteristic Startup Stage Project
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Tainan City
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National Cheng Kung University
Further reading
Measures for Leaving a Message to Enter the Draw for the Live Streaming of the Opening Ceremony
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Event Period
From 13:00 to 14:00 on December 12 (Saturday), 2020
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Event Measures
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List of Winners
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Event Prize Content
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4th Prize
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Announcement of the list of winners
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