Fearing Rain, Tainan Farmers Rush to Harvest First Rice Crop Amidst Truck Queues

Farmers across Tainan's XiBei region are in a frantic race against time to harvest their first rice crop, driven by urgent weather warnings. Forecasters predict a stationary plum rain front will bring torrential downpours next week, threatening to damage the ripening grain.

The urgency has led to scenes of intense activity at grain collection points. In Dongshan's Beishiliao, trucks laden with rice are forming long queues, waiting for their turn to be weighed and sold. The situation is mirrored in other areas like Houbi, Baihe, Xinying, Liuying, Xiaying, and Guanmian.

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We are flexibly starting and extending collection times to meet farmers' needs.

Agricultural cooperatives and private grain merchants are extending their operating hours to cope with the surge. The Houbi Farmers' Association, for example, is collecting grain from early morning until late evening. "We are flexibly starting and extending collection times to meet farmers' needs," said Lin Yi-hsin, the association's general secretary. Currently, only mature rice is being harvested, with no green harvesting observed, the primary difference being moisture content.

Both the Houbi Farmers' Association and the Xinying Farmers' Association are handling public grain procurement, alongside their own self-operated grain purchases. The Houbi Farmers' Association estimates it will handle over 6,000 metric tons. Fangrong Rice Factory in Houbi also has a significant demand, purchasing rice not only locally but also in Liuying and Dongshan. Factory manager Zhang Mei-xue described the scene as trucks "queuing from morning till night," with up to 16 trucks sometimes waiting at the Dongshan Beishiliao collection point. Despite storage limitations at collection sites, they are striving to purchase all available rice.

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The trucks are queuing from morning till night.