Fish and shrimp dry to death at the bottom of the water channel! Farmers complain that irrigation is stopped without early warning, it is difficult for practitioners to compete with landlords for compensation, and brand farmers suffer heavy losses.

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Recently, it has been raining continuously from Taipei to Ilan, but it has failed to fall on the Taozhu Miao area, where there is a thirst for water. Since the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced the suspension of irrigation on the 15th of this month, the affected 19000 hectares have launched a large-scale water grab operation. The situation of the bottom of the water channel, the drying up of the ditch and the sudden death of fish and shrimp is appalling.

At the same time, farmers accused the government of doing nothing beforehand. The Water Conservancy Department claimed to have implemented rotational irrigation, but was hit in the face by farmers in peach and bamboo areas. Although the compensation of 140000 yuan per hectare is paid to the actual tiller, if there is a conflict between the landlord and the tiller at the same time, I do not know when the judgment procedure will be completed, and the tiller will probably choose to give up the compensation for the renewal of the land.

The bottom of the Zhudong Grand Channel is just around the corner, and it is difficult to lift the drought in Hsinchu. (courtesy of Guo Yili) Green farmers accumulated brand customers for a long time and fell to the ground after stopping irrigation.

Guo Yili, a green farmer from Liuxiangtian, a well-known brand in Hsinchu, first launched an attack on rotational irrigation. She accused the Ministry of Economic Affairs of having the most policy tools to judge the water situation, but did nothing in advance. Although the Council of Agriculture said that rotational irrigation of peach bamboo seedlings had been implemented a long time ago, as if farmers had the benefit of hindsight, she said, "I don't know how rotational irrigation is notified. At least we had water here every day."

To her indignation, there was still enough rice in the public grain warehouse for a year, so the Council of Agriculture agreed to stop irrigation without hindrance. However, the Zhudong Grand Shenzhen, completed in 1928, is designed to irrigate 800 hectares of farmland within 21 kilometers. The government has not done a good job in the regulation of water resources, and officials may not feel it when they sit in the office, but what they sacrifice is the farmers they say they want to "take care of".

Guo Yili even pointed out that it is difficult for the government to compensate for the losses of brand farmers. Finally, because of the online sales driven by the epidemic and the new sources of tourists brought by agricultural tour coupons, the reputation of the Liuxiangtian brand is fermenting. If the second phase of rice cultivation is not available, consumers will soon turn their eyes away and let their previous hard work go to waste.

"We are out of rice in the next six months, and we won't be able to harvest sweet potatoes and corn," Guo said. "consumers can't wait for us for half a year. They can only try to come up with countermeasures, otherwise our brand may fail."

Due to the suspension of irrigation, all the corn laboriously planted by the main lights of Nongyou Village in Hsinchu was reimbursed. (provided by Guo Yili) grabbing water caused the sudden death of fish and shrimp, and the well at a depth of 10 meters may reach the bottom.

Zhan Wulong, who promotes food farmers' education in Hsinchu, says that as soon as the news of the stop of irrigation comes out, farmers begin to grab water, causing swimming fish or tadpoles in the water channel to die suddenly due to lack of water. "A little water is enough for them to survive temporarily. Even if they are irrigated only once or twice a week, they can last until the harvest, and there is no room for negotiation."

He said helplessly that the only harvest was that the children who came to the food farmers education course died when they saw the lack of water. "the awareness of water shortage is very direct, so now they all remind each other to save water."