An Agrarian Quandary

Every day has been a new adventure during my summer internship in Taiwan, including a recent visit to the rural districts surrounding the city of Taichung. The two-hour drive was definitely worth it as I got to see the real-life application of our work in the lab. It was awe-inspiring to look out into local fields and see the vast amount of vegetables being planted, grown, and harvested all by hand. The utmost care was provided for each and every crop being grown, as the sale of the commodity is often the only source of income available to the farmers in that area. Two of the farmers I had the opportunity to visit were busy packing away some of the pepper harvest they collected into various cardboard boxes by separating the peppers out based on size to suit their potential buyers. They told me the peppers would be taken into market and hopefully sold in the midst of often-intense competition. It was rather heartbreaking to hear that the different farmers in the area would have to compete against each other in hopes of selling enough to make a living. However, I soon came to the realization this was only one of the many challenges faced by farmers in the country.

After collecting samples of diseased peppers and tomatoes at various home gardens and surrounding fields in the region of Taiwan surrounding the city of Taichung, I was informed we would be making a pit-stop at a vegetable and fruit market to meet with a local farmer. He identified some problems farmers were experiencing and how they were getting worse. Upon meeting up with him, he hopped in our van and directed us on how to drive to his farm. Once we arrived, he showed us his pepper crops and allowed our researchers to collect samples of his pepper plants to determine the diseases he seemed to be facing. After talking about some possibilities for counteracting the diseases, he invited us inside, prepared us traditional Chinese tea, and began to talk about some of the problems he and other farmers have been facing recently. He spoke in-depth about how apparent it has become to him and other farmers in the area that the climate has changed exponentially. The rains have become more intense and the floods seem to come more frequently than ever, and it is difficult to get similar yields of those in the past. However, climactic changes were not the only issues he had on his mind. Switching over to English, he brought me out of his building and motioned to his field of young pepper plants. He told me to look out across the field containing his livelihood, and revealed the devastating truth that half of his crop will ultimately die or be unsellable due to various diseases that threaten to devastate his yields every year; including bacterial leaf spot, black mold, bacterial wilt, and Phytophthora capsici (the fungal disease I am studying during my internship).

Getting a first-hand perspective on the devastation caused by the various diseases was eye-opening. Not only was it horrifying to witness the countless peppers rotting away and rendered unsellable, but it was sobering to actually talk to the farmers who have to witness their livelihoods withering away. This excursion undoubtedly revitalized my passion to do everything I can to contribute to the fight against the diseases wreaking havoc over the region, in hopes of providing for a better future for countless people in the years to come.