[ Back STUST NEWS]

  Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology launched the “Let’s Do the Farming Together II—Local Creative Farming Activities (Touring the Farm in Spring Rain)    2020/5/11    

 

Student Entrepreneurship Team "Come on Agricultural Innovation Studio" based on the "From City to Rural Development—Local Creative Farming Implementation Project" of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, in order to let modern people understand the importance of food education, the connection between 24 solar terms and farming. In cooperation with the local non-profit organization “Dintsong Community District Development Association of Houbi District in Tainan City,” the team organized "Let’s Do the Farming Together II—From Seedling to Harvest." Participants in the previous activity—"Seeding in the Rain"--stepped in the soft and rotten fields, and bent over to complete the hard work of transplanting rice seedlings, followed by the second "Touring the Farm in Spring Rain" activity. The lively and interesting activities were highly praised again.

1.JPG

[A grandma in the community was seriously teaching participants how to make "rat shell rice dumplings."]

The Spring Crop Rain " is the sixth solar term among the twenty-four solar terms; it is the last solar term in spring. The crops after spring cultivation require rainwater irrigation. After the "spring rice rain," the rice has entered the heading stage, which is also the most important key period to determine rice production. The "Farming Small Classroom," which has always been well-received in the "Let’s Do the Farming Together" activity, was no exception this time. It prepared a lot of indispensable agricultural knowledge to inform everyone. At the site, there was a fun competition to answer in groups, and the lively atmosphere impressed the participants profoundly.

2.JPG

[The "Come and Do the Creative Farming Studio" student entrepreneurship group of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology had a group photo in the rice field.]

In order to let the students experience the fun of the countryside, the activity especially designed the "Latching Loach Competition." The students were so excited that they could not wait to launch and challenge the chubby loach. Even Zhen-Shiang Weng, Chief Officer of Houbi District of Tainan City, joined the activity to make fun. Then came the main agricultural activity—field maintenance. The students all stooped down, picking up the snails and removing the stalks and grasses to do the maintenance of the rice fields.

3.JPG

[Teachers and students of the "Come and Do the Creative Farming Studio" of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology had a group photo. in the rice field.]

After the field maintenance, old flavor banana ice was offered on site to the participants to cool off and rest for a while. They were then brought to experience the rice food "squid shell rice cake." All the materials were all arranged by the grandmas in the community, hoping to convey the happiness of the traditional countryside to everyone participant. At the end of the activity, the team led the participants to visit the practice of natural farming method "Duck Between Rice" to understand how the duck and rice fields coexist, drawing a perfect ending for the activity.

4.JPG

[Zhen-Shiang Weng, Chief Officer of Houbi District of Tainan City, (left second in first row) took photos with the participants when catching the loach.]

Prof. Bi-Ching Tseng from the Department of Industrial Management and Information Engineering, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, said that the time of the activity of "Touring the Farm in Spring Rain" has another important meaning, which is, the calendar in the office house will always stays on April 22, 2000, and the owner will always provide it to the community for free. It is also the "old house" where the creative studio can hold innovative food farmers education activities. After being idle for many years, thanks to the renovation of the Dingchang Community Development Association in 2017 and the "Making a dream and Running for it" plan by STUST, the student team, with the support of the project, gradually invested in the community and implemented such activities as resource surveys, agricultural cultivation, settlement activities, as well as innovative food and agriculture education activities, to attract foreign tourists to step down into the land and give way to the longest community in Houbi District. In the Songjiang Park, the "old house" is no longer a vacant room without shells and souls; it is now a participatory space that hosts the common life experience of community residents and tourists, injecting new vitality into the forgotten space. It is writing a new chapter, in memory and gratitude for the 20-year-old calendar hanging from a distance.

5.JPG

[Participants were taking the snails out the field and to feed the ducks.]

The "From City to Rural Development—Local Creative Farming Implementation Project" is a USR project incubated in 109 by Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, led by Prof. Bi-Ching Tseng. The student entrepreneurship team stepped into the actual field of Dintsong Community District Development Association of Houbi District in Tainan City, hoping that through the application of innovative food and agriculture education activities, the community would add more new vitality and promote the culture to make more people in the rural rice villages to understand the importance of food agriculture education, so as to fulfill the university's social responsibilities.

6.JPG

[The participants were carefully removing the weeds and picked up the snails in the field maintenance work, and the children also working in the field to experience the agricultural activity.]

7.JPG

[Participants were catching loach.]

8.JPG

[Participants were making mouse shell rice cakes in different shapes they created.]

 
 

3881