With the large area of farmland in Pingtung County, the huge amount of agricultural wastes produced during the plantation process has resulted in a major environmental concern. The high content of water, cellulose and lignin in waste branches and leaves have made it difficult to decay, so farmers often adopted the disposal approach of onsite burning, which could affect the air quality and human health. In addition, there are intensive uses of incenses and joss paper burning for the religious purpose, which have become major sources of contaminants. In light of this, Environmental Protection Bureau of Pingtung County Government has enhanced the control and patrol of outdoor burning of agricultural wastes, reduction of burning disposal of joss paper, and the relevant advocacy to reduce farmers’ outdoor burning behaviors, to reduce consumption of joss paper and incense, and to reduce contamination emission in order to maintain the air quality of the county.
This project is based on the approaches of (1) Implementing patrol of outdoor burning, and enhancing the banning of outdoor burning via day-time, night-time, holiday, and UAV patrol. (2) Using on-site contracted crushing to reduce farmers’ outdoor burning behaviors. (3) Providing concentration yards and promoting diversified disposal (contracted removal, recycle of soil covering tap) to help farmers properly dispose agricultural wastes. (4) Establishing environmentally friendly farms and checking farmland renting by Taiwan Sugar Corporation for self-management. (5) Promoting centralized burning of joss paper and help temples conduct joss paper and incenses reduction operation. (6) Organizing advocacy seminars for promotion, in order to achieve the purpose of project execution.
Based on the statistics of execution result of this project as of December 31, there have been 470 patrol operations. The top four townships with the most outdoor burning cases are Fangliao Township with 134 cases, Jiadong Township with 86 cases, Gaoshu Township with 45 cases, and Nanchou Township with 44 cases. All together they account for 66% of all patrol cases, which is 6.56% less than last year. However, the outdoor burning cases in Fangliao and Jiadong are actually more than last year. Farmers pointed out that some low-lying areas were prone to flooding, and it could take a long time waiting for waste to be removed, such that they decided to use burning approach for agricultural wastes. The majority of such wastes are waste branches and leaves of wax apple. Geographic Information System (ArcGIS) is used in coordination with GPS technology to complete the establishment of 5,611 farmer database in order to control the behaviors and dynamics of outdoor burning. In addition, a total of 16 contracted work shifts and a session of educational training have been established for the contracted crushing disposal. With the greatly reduced wax apple plantation area over the years, in this year only 933.14 hectares of crushed area has been achieved, and the remaining target amount will be deducted by diversified disposal; diversified disposals include centralized disposal, contracted removal disposal, and recycle of soil covering tap. The consulted area has grown from 174.59 hectares in 2018 to 446.6 hectares with a 2.5 times growth. Due to the fact that the only agricultural film recycling demonstration area in our country was established this year, and the provision of free waste removal, the diversified area has been dramatically increased; another promotion is for self-management of farmland renting from Taiwan Sugar Corporation, where the data of 921.46 hectares of farmland has been collected, and 304.11 hectares of rented farmland has been selected to be checked. There was no outdoor burning found during such check, indicating that the lease contract is very effective in constraining the lessee; the consultation has been provided to 5 farms to participate in the environmentally friendly farm project with completed educational seminar and onsite consultation operation, and the controlled area has been increased from the 334.12 hectares in 2018 to 350.06 hectares; 2 work meetings were convened this year for promoting “Counseling Program for Promoting Proper Disposal of Agricultural Wastes in Pingtung County”; in terms of advocacy, a total of 15 advocacy seminars were completed based on integration of agricultural administration units and agricultural wastes projects such that farmers can better understand current policies provided by Environmental Protection Bureau. Relevant data has been summarized and submitted to the General Planning Section to serve as the result of environmental education. In addition, the proper disposal rate of short-term crop has been enhanced from 93% to 96%, and the proper disposal rate of short-term crop (wax apple) has been enhanced from 83% to 88%.
In terms of consultation for reduction of centralized burning disposal of joss paper, the centralized removal has been implemented during Ching Ming Festival, Chinese Ghost Festival, and Lunar New Year. The total removal amount has reached 269.74 tons, which was 104.82 tons more than last year. This is an indication that people have been gradually accepting the centralized burning approach after years of advocacy; temples within the jurisdiction have been selected for visiting consultation for reduction of joss paper consumption. There were a total of 16 temples participating in the implementation of reduction measures, and a total of 66.6 tons of consumption of incenses and joss paper were reduced. And there were 6 advocacy seminars for joss paper centralized burning and consumption reduction completed by Chinese Ghost Festival. A total of 1,000 leaflets, posters, and publications were produced to be distributed during the activities of prohibiting outdoor burning, centralized burning of joss paper, and reduction of joss paper consumption. So far the average progress of the overall project has reached 100%, and the relevant results are as shown in Table 1.
The summary of results of all works has revealed the trend of case reduction in the townships (Linbian Township, Nanchou Township) with more outdoor burning cases after years of consultation for proper disposal and the establishment of proper disposal area, while the number of such cases was increased in Fangliao and Jiadong. Even though the number of wax apple outdoor burning cases was greatly reduced from last year, it is still the most among all types of burning cases, so the advocacy should continue to be enhanced in the future. The diversified proper disposal will be actively promoted with respect to Fangliao and Jiadong areas, and proper venues should be found to build concentration yards in order to meet farmer’s needs and reduce the occurrence of outdoor burning. In terms of centralization of joss paper, consultation of consumption reduction will continue to be provided to temples in this county, and the environmentally friendly furnace for joss paper will be built to enhance people’s and temples’ willingness in centralized burning of joss paper in order to achieve the vision of zero outdoor burning. In this year, the total amounts of contaminant reduction of diversified disposal of agricultural wastes, centralized disposal of joss paper, and temple consumption reduction consultation are: TSP: 128.5 (metric ton), PM10: 127.1 (metric ton), PM2.5: 115.4 (metric ton), SOx: 5.504 (metric ton), NOx: 237.6 (metric ton), CO: 1751 (metric ton), THC: 218.5 (metric ton), NMHC: 195.3 (metric ton)
