Taiwan Indigenous farmer revives climate-resilient millet

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TAITUNG: Indigenous farmer Banu Ismahasan walks through a golden field of tall stalks in southeastern Taiwan, harvesting by hand the grain heads of an ancient ...

TAITUNG: Indigenous farmer Banu Ismahasan walks through a golden field of tall stalks in southeastern Taiwan, harvesting by hand the grain heads of an ancient crop that can withstand extreme weather.

Once grown by Indigenous farmers in Taiwan as insurance against failed staple crops, oil millet largely disappeared from fields more than 60 years ago as rice became more widely available.

Over the past decade, Ismahasan and his elderly parents have worked to revive the nearly forgotten crop in the Bunun community of Buklavu, a village surrounded by lush green mountains in Taitung county.

“We just hope to bring back many traditional Bunun crops and grow them on this land again,” Ismahasan, 48, told AFP in his field.

Oil millet, or “dill” in the Bunun language, is native only to Taiwan and grows wild in the mountains.

Ismahasan first read about the plant online, then researched it himself, combing through historical documents and speaking to tribal elders, including a woman who recalled last eating it half a century ago.

He discovered that Bunun farmers used to grow it alongside their staple crop, foxtail millet, as a “back-up” when harvests failed or disasters struck.

A single oil millet seed can grow 15 to 20 panicles, or branching seed clusters, and the stems regrow on their own, while foxtail millet typically produces one panicle per seed and must be resown after cutting.

Oil millet has also proved hardier than foxtail millet when extreme weather or disease has ravaged his 2.2-hectare (5.4-acre) farm. During a drought several years ago that lasted more than 200 days, it “stayed bright green” while other crops withered, he said. Typhoons, floods and even an outbreak of rust disease have not affected it either.

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