Floriculture - The Taiwan Experience

To Taiwanese entrepreneurs, agriculture as a business is not that lucrative. However, a subcategory of the industry which is floriculture does. Floriculture is the propagation of orchids or other ornamental plants and has been now a big business venture in Taiwan. In 2006, Taiwan has produced more than four hundred million US dollars worth of horticulture crops like orchids, anthurium, foliage plants and the likes. Much of its produce is exported to Japan, the US, Europe, Hong Kong and worldwide. In 2006, Taiwan has exported worth of seventy seven million US dollars floriculture products and the 2007 figures are expected to be higher.

The aggressive entry of entrepreneurs has increased ten times floriculture production area from 1978 to 2006. It was just 1,242 hectares in 1978 and it had reached to 13,375 hectares in 2006. In 1975 floriculture crops where produced in open fields whereas today, the norm is to produce them in high tech greenhouses. Although the area devoted to floriculture has increased more than ten times since 1978, the value of the floriculture products had increased more than thirty times.

Orchids had contributed some forty seven million US dollars or fifty seven percent of its floriculture exports in 2006. Some sixty eight percent of the orchid's flowers which come in various colors and sizes are phalaenopsis. The rest are accounted for by cymbidium and oncidium. Taiwan is considered to be the number one phalaenopsis producer in the world and it is the only country that can export to the US without removing the plant from its growing medium.

In comparison to other crops, in floriculture one can earned US$ 151,000 in phalaenopsis orchid alone in a hectare per year as compared to say a hectare of rice is usually US$ 4000 a year. No wonder that the young generation business minded Taiwanese are attracted in growing orchids as a business. The Taiwanese government is very supportive of the floriculture industry and financing can also be obtained under favorable terms from financing institution to those who wanted to venture on it.

Recognizing the potential of the ornamental horticulture industry, it has established the Floriculture Research Center in 2001. Research is focused on addressing technical problems in the flower industry. It is specifically interested in producing new cultivors of orchids and other crops with outstanding traits. The plant could be more resistant to pests and diseases, harsh growing conditions, higher yielding and its flowers could also have better transport quality, brighter colors, longer vase life and so on.

The Floriculture Research Center has registered some fifty five new hybrids of phalaenopsis with the British Royal Horticular Society. Some of these hybrids are now franchised to accredited nurseries which produced them in commercial scale for sale to local and export markets. The center is developing three different types of phalaenopsis. They are the standard size with tall flower spikes , the medium height and the dwarf in which has a potential niche market. Researches on the bigger phalaenopsis include the production of cultivors that have more floral branding, flowers with thicker texture for longer shelf life and so on.

One of the flowering plant given attention which has a potential export to Japan is anthurium. The research center has already bred two commercial varieties with high quality traits. There are many more still unnamed hybrids which are being tested for different desirable traits. One technology developed by the center to solve blight disease of anthurium is the growing of the plant in a soil less medium and on above ground benches.

Research work at the Floriculture Research Center continues in its laboratories as well as in its twenty one hectare experimental fields where a number of greenhouses are used for studies in different aspects of flower production.

Arnold Cafe is an active internet marketer and author of Ideas Galore: http://www.affleap.com/blog/

Learning Chinese in Taiwan - My Experience

When I first arrived in Taiwan to teach English, I had already taken several courses in university on Mandarin Chinese. I had done well in those courses and enjoyed them very much. I thought that maybe I would be able to begin conversing immediately with Chinese speakers and improve my Chinese in the process. I was excited.

However, as soon as I became immersed in the overwhelming environment of Taiwan I became afraid to speak. Seeing all of the signs written in Chinese, constantly overhearing long streams of spoken Chinese that were incomprehensible to me, and seeing the effortless fluency of some foreigners who had been there for a while, I began to feel very differently about my Chinese speaking ability. Things felt very different outside of the classroom.

And so when I went to Starbucks, or ordered at a restaurant I spoke only English except for a polite "xie xie" or "thank you" to waiters and waitresses, and an occasional polite "Ni Hao". I occasionally wondered whether my university courses in Mandarin Chinese had been a waste.

What really happened to me was what happens every day to Chinese language learners. I became afraid and overwhelmed at the foreignness of the language, and did not stop to consider the fact that with a little more practice and a little more courage things would begin to make sense. Being paralyzed with fear, I was limited in my ability to interact with Chinese people.

Something happened a few weeks later. I had spent a lot of time in public, and the sound of spoken Chinese was becoming more ordinary to me. Despite the fact that I had not been practicing my Chinese, and I had not consulted my vocabulary flashcards, I began to notice in the long streams of unbroken Chinese, some words that I recognized from my courses in university. At first, I heard only one word. "Dianhua" - telephone. After that, I began hearing other words. Sometimes, I would hear a couple of words in one sentence.

So I got out my flashcards, and looked into an online program for learning Chinese called Rocket Chinese. More and more words began to stand out to me. I started studying Chinese characters and even began to be able to read small blocks of text in the advertisements I would see outside my window. It might seem ridiculous, but I felt an intense sense of victory. I could not carry on a conversation, and most Chinese was still indecipherable to me, but I had a feeling. I developed the conviction that with consistent practice and a careful ear, that the Chinese language would come into focus for me.

When I really began speaking in Chinese to Chinese people I met, the smiles that I received in return were a fantastic reward for the work that I had done in learning the language. It was a great feeling to order food from a restaurant in Chinese, or to make a comment about the weather to the lady who works at the bank.

I still have not mastered Chinese. I would say that I have a moderate degree of fluency. My reading is still especially poor. However, I feel very strongly that the reputation Chinese has as a difficult language is undeserved, and that it comes into focus for anyone who is willing to listen to it and attempts to speak it. I hope that others will not be paralyzed by fear as I was, but embrace opportunities to speak. I hope as well that many others will feel the same intense sense of small victory that I felt. Chinese is a fascinating language and a rewarding one to learn, and absolutely anyone can learn it.

Justin White lives in Jhubei Taiwan, and frantically works at learning Chinese.

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