ECO-FRIENDLY OPTION:
The federal government has allotted NT$400,000 this yr to encourage farmers in six cities and counties to make use of digestates to fertilize their fields
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By Chen Chia-yi
and Jake Chung / Workers reporter, with employees author
An Environmental Safety Administration (EPA) venture in collaboration with farmers in Pingtung County has discovered that fertilizing pink bean crops with liquid digestate can enhance yields by 33 p.c.
Digestate is the residues left from biogas manufacturing and is usually used as an natural fertilizer.
The venture was trialed on 969.91m2 of land, with biogas plant tankers offering 24 tonnes of liquid digestate, EPA Water High quality Conservation Division official Chien Liang-ta (簡良達) stated on Thursday final week.
Photograph: Chen Chia-yi, Taipei Instances
The experiment yielded a harvest of 225kg — 33 p.c greater than the pink bean crop grown in different fields throughout the identical interval.
The landowner, a lady surnamed Lee (李), stated she wanted to make use of solely half the quantity of chemical pesticides for the crop, which was additionally much less vulnerable to illness.
The EPA and the Council of Agriculture have been urging farmers to make use of liquid and stable digestate as fertilizer, given its environmental advantages.
The federal government this yr has put aside NT$400,000 to advertise digestates in Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi and Pingtung counties, together with Tainan and Kaohsiung — and is offering NT$2,000 every to farmers as an incentive to make use of biogas byproducts.
EPA Division Director-Normal Yen Hsu-ming (顏旭明) stated that every one liquid and stable digestate has been processed to remove odor and has very low steel residues — two considerations expressed by farmers.
Soil monitoring from the venture confirmed that utilizing digestates didn’t end in a rise in heavy metals, Yen stated.
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