BEACHCOMBING COMMUNITY:Nanliao villagers use the materials they have at hand in surprising ways, including mixing cow manure and peanut shells into a fuel source
Taipei Times
Date: Jun 28, 2015
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter
Nanliao Village (南寮) on the sparsely populated outlying island of Penghu might not look
Walls made of coral are pictured in Nanliao Village, Penghu County. Photo: Sean Lin, Taipei Times
very different from any other rural Taiwanese community at first, but take a closer look and the fishing-turned-farming community is full of surprises.
A distinctive feature of Nanliao is that coral is used as a building material, which can be seen in the caijhai (菜宅, vegetable houses) — windbreaks set up to protect vegetable plots from the northeast monsoon winds which blow from September to April, and on the facades of older houses
Due to its arid weather — the village has an annual precipitation of only about 1m — and the sandy composition of its soil, farmers in Nanliao mostly grow peanuts and sweet potatoes, which do not need much warer, said Nanliao Village Warden Chao Chia-hsieh (趙嘉協), who has been promoting organic farming in the community for many years.
Describing Nanliao as an eco-friendly community with an emphasis on recycling, he said that residents have found applications for many things that are usually regarded as worthless, including coral, cow manure, discarded plastic fishing floats and even the small evergreen tree white popinac — which is not native to Taiwan. [FULL STORY]
