Taiwan Today

Government efforts to promote the adoption of circular agriculture solutions are gaining traction in Taiwan.

Shih An Farm in southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung City is a national leader in circular agriculture. One of the country’s largest chicken egg producers, the company has developed a system that collects excretion from its more than 700,000 laying hens for use in making biogas for electricity generation and organic fertilizers for nearby farmland.

In April 2018, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) visited the facility to inspect this successful model for creating value from waste. Tsai described Shih An’s approach as a synergy of agriculture, the circular economy and renewable energy. Encouraging the adoption of similar solutions at other farms can help propel Taiwan’s animal husbandry sector toward a sustainable future, she said.

Policy Priority

Circular agriculture intersects several components of the government’s five-plus-two industrial innovation program. This comprehensive economic revitalization initiative is promoting the high-growth sectors of biotech, green energy, national defense, smart machinery and Internet of Things, as well as the circular economy and a new paradigm for agricultural development.

Spearheading the country’s efforts to devise and integrate circular agriculture solutions is the Taiwan Livestock Research Institute (TLRI) under the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture (COA). Headquartered at a former horse-breeding facility in the southern city of Tainan, it operates eight branch offices and research stations around the country. The institute’s measures to advance the reuse of “leftover materials”—an emerging industry term for waste in Taiwan—target the agriculture, aquaculture, forestry and livestock sectors.

“The terminology change reflects our new mindset,” TLRI Director-General Huang Jeng-fang (黃振芳) said. “In the past, waste treatment was largely aimed at meeting the environmental standards for disposal. Today, it’s increasingly about facilitating the more complete use of available resources through the application of cutting-edge technologies.”

Circular agriculture projects typically convert leftover materials into either biogas or inputs for the production of feed, fertilizers, biomedicines and cosmetics. “Thanks to new upcycling processes, companies in Taiwan and elsewhere are generating significant value from byproducts and waste,” Huang said.

To bolster the development of related procedures and technologies, TLRI coordinates integrated R&D involving such agencies as the COA, Ministry of Science and Technology, and Academia Sinica, the nation’s foremost research institution. Also participating in these efforts are major industry think tanks including Taiwan Institute of Economic Research and Taiwan Agricultural Science and Technology Resources Logistics Management Association (TARM), both based in Taipei City.

TARM Chief Executive Officer Lee Yi-ying (李宜映) said that the organization takes a top-down approach to advancing circular agriculture. “We advise on government policymaking and help conduct ensuing projects,” she said. “Together with other like-minded bodies, we’re committed to furthering the country’s goal of putting materials once considered worthless back into the value chain.”

According to TARM statistics, animal manure and rice straw and husks are the two largest sources of agricultural waste in Taiwan at a combined total of roughly 5 million metric tons per year. Much of the former comes from the 5.45 million hogs at the 7,048 pig farms nationwide.

TARM has supported several projects to tackle the manure generated at these sites. Among the most successful is at Donghaifong pig farm in southern Taiwan’s Pingtung County. The facility is operated by state-owned Taiwan Sugar Corp., the nation’s largest hog farming enterprise with 18 locations producing about 380,000 animals annually. Under a COA-led integrated R&D initiative, technologies were installed at the farm to capture excretion and methane and convert them into biogas. This process serves a dual purpose by utilizing the waste and preventing emissions of the harmful greenhouse gas. With its biogas and solar facilities outputting an estimated 13,000 kilowatt-hours per day, Donghaifong is now powered completely by renewable energy.

The capture system was developed at TLRI’s cattle farm in Tainan. The site has served as a test bed for a host of other circular agriculture initiatives, including the first COA-supported project to develop a liquid organic fertilizer from processed cattle manure.

Between 2013 and 2018, TLRI conducted a trial of this compost, using about 6,800 metric tons of it each year on a 35-hectare pangola grass field at the facility. The institute is now utilizing three on-site napier grass plots to stage a comparative study of its effectiveness versus common chemical fertilizers and fallowing. Initial results indicate that it outperforms in promoting crop growth and maintaining soil quality. “If we don’t reuse this waste from the cattle farm, it’s like we’re throwing away piles of efficient fertilizer,” Huang said, adding that TLRI is organizing forums, meetings and training courses for agricultural enterprises to accelerate the shift toward nonchemical products.

Gold Rush

In Tainan’s Guantian District, not far from the TLRI cattle farm, the power of circular solutions to boost revenues, eliminate waste and transform industries is on full display. Guantian is the primary water caltrop-growing region in Taiwan, accounting for about 70 percent of the nation’s annual output of the black hard-shelled fruit. Previously, thousands of metric tons of water caltrop shells were burned or discarded in the area each year, causing significant environmental concerns. “Now virtually all of them are collected and reused,” said Yen Neng-tung (顏能通), who heads Guantian District Office.

With assistance from the academic and business sectors, the office developed a way to transform this waste into what locals call “black gold.” Supported by Lin Hong-ping (林弘萍), a chemistry professor at Tainan-based National Cheng Kung University, Yen’s team developed an incineration system capable of exceeding 1,000 C to turn the shells into biochar, a form of charcoal used to enrich soil. The system is set to be further upgraded with help from local enterprises including sheet metal fabricator Chih Kang Material Co.

In addition to boosting nutrient content, biochar can limit acidification, making it a popular soil additive among agricultural enterprises, Yen said. With an impressive surface area of 250 square meters per gram, the water caltrop-derived product is also effective at absorbing moisture, odors and volatile chemicals, he added.

Touting these attributes, social enterprise Guantian Black Gold Community Cooperative markets the biochar to the public, selling it in variously sized cloth pouches for use in spaces like cars, closets, drawers, refrigerators and toilets. “Our project addressed a community environmental issue and tapped a commercial opportunity,” Yen said. “By seeking a scientific answer to our waste problem, we’ve fashioned a long-term economic benefit.”

According to the district office head, the black gold rush in Guantian is also helping draw young people back to the rural area. Next on the agenda for the cooperative is competing directly against more established products, such as Japanese bamboo-based biochar. “With further equipment upgrades and investment in R&D, we’ll be able to challenge international market leaders in this industry,” Lin said.

Distribution Dilemma

Guantian’s biochar venture was enabled by the centralization of the water caltrop-growing industry. The issue for groups such as TLRI and TARM working to promote circular agriculture is that this is the exception rather than the norm. Many agricultural sectors in Taiwan are characterized by the widespread dispersion of smallholder farmers, making it difficult to achieve economies of scale in implementing circular solutions.

The pork production industry is a case in point. Of the nation’s 7,048 pig farms, those raising 1,000 or more hogs made up only 22.2 percent, while those with less than 200 animals accounted for 42.1 percent, the most recent COA statistics showed. The other primary source of agricultural waste, the rice-growing sector, is similarly spread out.

One method of addressing this is through the establishment of organic circular parks. The COA has launched 12 such sites this year, with TARM providing technical services to resident farm operators. While acknowledging the challenges, Huang expressed confidence that circular innovations will take hold across Taiwan’s agricultural industry and help propel it to new heights. “The academic, public and private sectors are fully behind this mission,” he said. “Through embracing these concepts, we can give rise to a new age of climate-smart agriculture.” 

Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw