| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 地理研究所 === 89 === This thesis is intended to investigate, from the biogeographic approach, the cultivation of lotus in Taiwan. It focuses on the development and the management of the “lotus industry” during the past 30 years after the lotus was first introduced into Taiwan 300 years ago. The study is based on both field-work and questionnaire survey with Chia-Nan Plain as the study region. Also aiming at a sustainable management of the paddy fields ecology, it explores the feasibility of an agricultural strategy of transforming the paddy fields to the lotus fields in Taiwan.
From the library research of historical records shows that lotus was introduced into Taiwan by the Han people after mid-17th century. At the beginning, the lotus was planted in Kaohsiung and Tainan areas, and then spread throughout the island. Due to complicated factors of environmental fitness, adaptation process, policy measures and cultivation techniques, over seventy percent of the lotus industry today conglomerates along the alluvial plain of Bazhang river in Chia-Nan region. In the past, lotus seeds and roots were ambrosias affordable only by the rich. Along economic development in Taiwan, a domestic consumption market of the lotus-related products was established for all people. Consequently, wild lotus growth in the ponds has been transformed to cultivation in the paddy fields with considerable care and precise control. The Shilien（石蓮）, Kienlien（建蓮） and Dahanlien（大憨蓮） are the primary species in lotus planting in Chia-Nan region. By 1991, the lotus landscape in this region started to attract tourism, thus the lotus industry has had a new orientation towards leisure agriculture.
The development of paddy-field-based lotus industry can bring higher profit and also holds the ecological benefit almost identical to the environment of paddy field. It is very suitable for aquatic flora and fauna, with a total of 63 families and 139 species. In another aspect, the managements of the lotus field follow the activity sequence in a year: “planting in spring, harvesting in summer, idling in autumn, processing in winter”. Harvesting and processing the lotus seeds and rhizomes and their related products form a close nexus to the rural life in the places of cultivation and have consequently developed a scenery peculiar to these places. As the lotus industry related activities proceed in the year, so do the aquatic and terrestrial flora and fauna inhabit in lotus fields. The affluence and diversity of the ecological system in lotus fields accompanying with the changes of season is the best advantage point of managing lotus fields as scenic spots, which also augments the fringe value of the lotus industry.
The lotus-industry is labor intensive but calls for professional skills. The extent of mechanization is limited. Declined productivity and quality of labor force and the ever increase of wages cost are the worries of the industry for future. In marketing, most lotus farmers pack and sell the products by themselves, with limited participation by farmer’s association and outside wholesale merchants. The lack of an modern, integrated production and marketing system has held back productivity and quality improvement as well as image promotion of the indigenous lotus-related products. As a result, the imported dried lotus seeds from China, which has a low cost basis, is now penetrating the Taiwanese market..
Facing this threatening, the only way to sustain the economic viability of the industry, the social life of lotus farmers, as well as the ecological system in the fields is to broaden and deepen the culture of the tourism in this “lotus hometown” of Taiwan..
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