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Irrigation pumps in late colonial Taiwan: Farmers’ utilization of technology and the transition to rice cultivation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2023
Abstract
This article describes how Taiwanese farmers adopted irrigation pumps to enhance their livelihoods under the shifting relationship of sugar and rice production in late colonial Taiwan. I argue that farmers utilized commercial technologies to make a living and prosper within the established order of Japanese colonial rule. With allocated procurement districts granting exclusive purchasing rights over sugarcane, sugar companies maintained substantial influence over sugarcane cultivation. However, with the proliferation of Penglai rice and new agricultural implements, the situation of the farmers changed substantially. Serious problems in the sugar industry due to economic depression and the rising price of rice in the 1930s led farmers to shift from sugarcane to rice cultivation by introducing a variety of pumps. Those with the means installed new motor pumps, while others independently constructed wind pumps by combining newly introduced parts with older techniques. Despite a prohibition by the colonial government, farmers continued installing pumps until the government established a planned economy in preparation for war. Moreover, distribution of pump capacity through both sales and sharing shows that Taiwanese farmers sought to maintain an informal yet significant cohesion throughout the process of agricultural commercialization. By focusing on the social dynamics surrounding agricultural technologies, this article challenges simplistic portrayals of technology transfer from Japan to the colonies.
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- © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press.
References
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13 This article mainly focuses on the 1930s, when pumps were rapidly adopted by local farmers. Farmers’ management of their agricultural endeavours was substantially limited at the close of the 1930s as the government embarked to create a planned economy in preparation for war.
14 I lived in Lushangcuo Village, which was in the western part of Beidou County, between October 2016 and May 2018. I returned for month-long visits three times in 2019 and once in 2020. I conducted interviews with elderly inhabitants around the village during my stays and held supplementary online interviews in 2020.
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38 Ka, Japanese colonialism in Taiwan, p. 113. See also Tu, Nihonteikokushugika no Taiwan, p. 65. The price of sugarcane in each district was announced before the planting season by the sugar companies, so farmers could calculate revenues from cultivating sugarcane before choosing which crop to plant.
39 Tsuru, ‘1900-30 nendai Taiwannōgyō no shakaishi’, pp. 106–107. See also Tsuru, ‘Nirinshanōjiken no haikei no saikentō’, pp. 4–5.
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51 Ka, Japanese colonialism in Taiwan, p. 117.
52 Satō, Taiwantōgyō zenshi, p. 99.
53 Tsuru, ‘Nirinshanōjiken no haikei no saikentō’, pp. 9–10. In 1923, while average sugarcane yield in Taiwan was no more than 60,000 jin per jia, the average of this procurement district was 76,000 jin per jia. Tōmuka, Shokusankyoku, Taiwan Tōgyo Tōkei [Taiwanese sugar industry statistics], no. 14 (Taipei: 1926), pp. 32–33Google Scholar. One jin is equivalent to 600 grams.
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56 Tsuru, ‘Nirinshanōjiken no haikei no saikentō’, p. 16.
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60 Ka, Japanese colonialism in Taiwan, pp. 117, 178.
61 Taichūshū, Shōwaninen Taichūshū Tōkeisho [Taichung Province Statistics, 1927] (Taichung: 1929), p. 182.
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79 ‘Taichūshū hokutogunka ni okeru chikasuikangai ni tsuite’ [Groundwater irrigation in Beidou County, Taichung Province], September 1932, RTPC, File 70-32.
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85 ‘Taichūshū hokutogunka niokeru chikasuikangai ni tsuite’, p. 5.
86 ‘Chikasuikangai ni taisuru tokufu e tanganyōshi’, p. 1.
87 ‘Chikasuikangai ni taisuru tokufu e tanganyōshi’, pp. 7–8; ‘Denkijikobōshi kyōdōkenkyūkai daihakkai zadankaishiryō’ [Materials for the Eighth Meeting of the Electric Fault Prevention Study Group], May 1938, RTPC, File 71-4.
88 ‘Chikasuikangai ni taisuru tokufu e tanganyōshi’, p. 6.
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91 These regulations were promulgated as soon as the Japanese military completed its occupation of Taiwan in 1901 and granted the government control of all water facilities. The regulations did not mention small-scale irrigation facilities such as motor pumps and wind pumps; however, beginning in 1933, the government began to prohibit these by broadly reinterpreting the regulations. Morifumi, Yamashita, ‘Taichūshū niokeru muninkahishūseiri to suiritōseikyōka no zenbō’ [Reduction of unauthorized irrigation facilities in Taichung Province and an outline of the strengthened regulations on water management], Suirikyōkaihō, vol. 1, no. 2, 1938, p. .Google Scholar
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94 Taichūshū suirika, Taichūshū suirikōgai, p. 3.
95 Taichūshū, Shōwakyūnen taichūshū kannaigaikyō oyobi jimugaiyō [Summary of general conditions and work in Taichung Province], 1935, p. 278.
96 Naimukyoku dobokuka (ed.), Taiwan suirikankeihōrei ruisan [Collection of rules on water management in Taiwan] (Taipei: Taiwansuirikyōkai, 1942), p. Google Scholar. Since local governments tacitly allowed farmers to install pumps under the prohibition, it is difficult to describe changes in this period quantitatively. The following remarks by Mori Mankichi, a director of the Chianan Irrigation Association, clearly describe the problems of enforcement:
Actually, some tacitly allow the construction of irrigation facilities as industrial development or even encourage it. This is why irrigation by wells and motor pumps without permission has become an issue. This is probably not only the case in Taichung Province but is likely also common in other provinces. However, I believe that they do not report these situations to the relevant section of the government so as not to be blamed for not enforcing the prohibition. Anyway, I think tacit permission for irrigation is given frequently all the time and everywhere.
This passage demonstrates that the colonial government lacked substantial data on the proliferation of pumps during the ban due to underreporting by local governments. See Kōjirō, Mori (ed.), Daigokai zentōsuiri jimukyōgikai yōroku [Overview of the Fifth Conference on Island Water Management] (Taipei: Taiwansuirikyokai, 1936), p. .Google Scholar
97 Kōjirō, Mori (ed.), Dairokkai zentōsuiri jimukyōgikai yōroku [Overview of the Sixth Conference on Island Water Management] (Taipei: Taiwansuirikyōkai, 1937), pp. 89–90Google Scholar; Naimukyoku dobokuka (ed.), Taiwan suirikankeihōrei ruisan, pp. 240–243.
98 Teruhiro, Minato, Kindaitaiwan no denryokusangyō: Shokuminchikōgyōka to shihonshijō [The modern Taiwanese electric power industry: Colonial industrialization and capital markets] (Tokyo: Ochanomizushobō, 2011), pp. 135–138.Google Scholar
99 See Tomida Yoshihiro, ‘Taiwan niwa donnna nōgu ga tsukawareteiru!?’, p. 49.
100 Yamashita Morifumi, ‘Taichūshū niokeru muninkahishūseiri to suiritōseikyōka no zenbō’, p. 8.
101 ‘Kansha no konponseisaku wo shidōsha mo ninshikiseyo’ [Politicians also must recognize basic policy for sugarcane production], Taichūshū Kanshakyōsakukai Tokushūgo, no. 48, 18 July 1938, pp. 2–3.
102 Hanmu, Xie, ‘Hayaue seba zōshū kakujitsu’ [Early planting leads to increased yields], Taichūshū kanshakyōsakukai tokushūgō, no. 21, 5 January 1938, p. .Google Scholar
103 ‘Hokuto tsūshin’ [Report from Beidou], Nītaka shinpō, 6 April 1935, p. 5.
104 ‘Mizu ni fujiyūna sunayama iminmura chihō kangaichi no kussaku ni seikō’ [Irrigation pool successfully constructed in the immigrant village of Shashan, which previously lacked a stable water supply], Taiwan nichinichi shinpō, 14 May 1935, p. 5.
105 I am indebted to Mr Xie Liu (1925–), a villager of Lushangcuo Village, Shashan Township, for my understanding of the form and use of wind pumps. The following paragraphs are based on information gathered through interviews with Mr Xie.
106 ‘Ten wo aoide amagoi no inori, zenmetsu ninaku Hokutogun’ [Praying for rain while looking up into the sky, crying for the bad crop in Beidou County], Taiwan xinminbao, 26 May 1933, p. 5. In Japan, the use of traditional wind pumps made of bamboo, wood, and ceramic declined with the spread of engines and electricity in the early twentieth century. They began being used again in the latter half of the 1920s with attached cast-iron piston pumps. See Minehiro, Nakajima, ‘Wagakuni niokeru fūshakangai no chirigakutekikenkyū’ [A geographical study of windmill irrigation in Japan], Chirigakuhyōron, vol. 57, no. 5, 1984, pp. 307–328Google Scholar; Tsutomu, Demizu, Suisha no gijutsushi [A history of waterwheel technology] (Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 1987), p. Google Scholar. The relationship between the spread of wind pumps in Japan and colonial Taiwan is unclear. It would be safe to assume that the development of the machinery industry in 1920s Japan made it much more feasible for farmers throughout the Japanese empire to install wind pumps.
107 Interview with Xie Liu, 15 September 2019.
108 Initially, farmers probably bought these parts from traders in the cities of Changhua or Taichung. There were at least two shops where agricultural implements, including pumps and their parts, could be purchased in the central district of Erlin Township by the mid-1930s. This district was the most commercially developed area in the western part of Beidou County. Yutaka, Komatsu, Hokutogai, Nirinshō, Keishūshō, Chikutōshō [Beidou Township, Erlin Township, Xizhou Township, and Zhutang Township] (Taipei: Tōkyōkōshinkōtsūsha, 1937).Google Scholar
109 Interview with Xie Liu, 20 September 2019.
110 Shinkichi, Endō, ‘Hokutosuirikumiai jigyōkeikaku to hōfu’ [The project plan and hopes of the Beidou Irrigation Association], Taichūshū Suirikyōkaihō, vol. 1, no. 3, 1938, p. Google Scholar. The next section has a detailed description of the use of chain pumps.
111 ‘Denkijikobōshi kyōdōkenkyūkai daihakkai zadankaishiryō’, p. 14.
112 After the Japanese government increased tariffs on foreign sugar in 1932 to reduce sugar imports from Java and increase the price of sugar in Japan, sugar companies in colonial Taiwan attempted to expand sugar-manufacturing and the acreage allocated to sugarcane cultivation. Tu, Nihonteikokushugika no Taiwan, p. 114.
113 ‘Meijiseitō kabushikigaisya’ [Meiji Sugar Company], Tōgyō, no. 221, 1932, p. 44; ‘Ensuikōseitō kabushikigaisya’ [Ensuikō Sugar Company], Tōgyō, no. 221, 1932, p. Google Scholar; ‘Meijiseitō kabushikigaisya’, Tōgyō, no. 233, 1933, p. Google Scholar; ‘Ensuikōseitō kabushikigaisya’, Tōgyō, no. 233, 1933, p. 52.
114 Ensuikō Sugar stopped setting different prices for sugarcane produced in the western part of the county in 1935. It seems that the continued expansion of rice production in this area compelled the company to cease its discriminatory approach. Sugar, Meiji, however, continued to set lower prices for sugarcane produced in the western part of its procurement district. ‘Ensuikōseitō kabushikigaisya’, Tōgyō, no. 233, 1933, pp. 52–54Google Scholar; ‘Meijiseitō kabushikigaisya’, Tōgyō, no. 233, 1933, pp. 42–45.
115 Yamashita, ‘Taichūshū niokeru muninkahishūseiri to suiritōseikyōka no zenbō’, pp. 6–7. For a general discussion of the planned economy in late colonial Taiwan, see Sumiya Mikio, Liu Jinqing, Tu Zhaoyan, Taiwan no Keizai: Tenkei NIES no Hikaritokage [The Taiwanese economy: Darkness and light in a typical NIES] (Tokyo: Tōkyōdaigaku Shuppankai), pp. 22–23.
116 Endō Shinkichi, ‘Hokutosuirikumiai jigyōkeikaku to hōfu’, pp. 32–36.
117 Kawano, Taiwan beikoku keizairon, pp. 215–216; Fujihara, Ine no daitōakyōeiken: teikokunihon no “midori no kakumei”, p. 142.
118 Ka, Japanese colonialism in Taiwan, pp. 71–72.
119 See the curriculum vitae of Jiang Kunmu, who worked at the firm from 1932–1937, in Hokuto suirikumiai, Taishokusha rirekisho [Curriculum vitae of retired officials]. This record is located in Taiwan at the Changhua Office of the Council of Agriculture Irrigation Agency.
120 Interview with Luo Qingshui (1926–), 2 February 2018. This custom presumably developed from older customs regarding the use of water drawn from the Zhuoshui River. Though the southern part of Lukoucuo Village had no access to canals, which was the reason landlords adopted pumps, a substantial portion of farmers in northern part of the village did.
121 Interview with Luo Qingshui, 2 February 2018. According to Luo Qingshui, the price of water did not change with rice price fluctuations. For average yields, see Shokuryōkyoku, Taiwan beikoku yōran, pp. 17, 134.
The high price of water drawn by motor pump is also evident when compared with fees for canal water offered by the Beidou Irrigation Association. This water was drawn from the Zhuoshui River and cost about one yen per year for each 0.1 jia irrigated, which converted to unhulled rice would have been no more than 13 jin. This service, however, was unavailable in many parts of the county. See Naimukyoku dobokuka, Shōwa jūnendo naimukyokushukan dobokujigyō tōkeinenpō [Section of the Interior statistical annal of civil engineering and construction, 1935] (1937), p. 61.
122 ‘Taichūshūhokutogunka niokeru chikasuikangai ni tsuite’ [Groundwater irrigation in Beidou County, Taichung Province], September 1932, RTPC, File 70-32, pp. 9–10; ‘Denkijikobōshi kyōdōkenkyūkai daihakkai zadankaishiryō’, pp. 14–15.
123 See reports in Suirikyōkaihō, a journal published by the Allied Irrigation Association of Taichung Province. For example, ‘Suirigyōji: Daiyonkai taichūshū suirijimu kenkyūkai gaikyō’ [Water management event: Outline of the Fourth Meeting on Water Management Work in Taichung Province], Taichūshū Suirikyōkaihō, vol. 1, no. 3, 1938, p. Google Scholar. These criticisms have to be carefully interpreted, as the association belonged to the government and was critical of the management of irrigation water by private landowners from its inception.
124 Lack of detailed economic records on farming households in colonial Taiwan and the subsequent difficulties for analysis are frequently mentioned by Taiwanese economic historians. See Tu, Nihonteikokushugika no Taiwan, p. 119; Ka, Japanese colonialism in Taiwan, p. 139.
125 Interview with Luo Qingshui (1926–), 2 February 2018.
126 By sharing, I refer to unilateral transactions where the recipient is not required to recompense the giver, nor does the recipient incur any debt to the giver. Sharing is different from gift giving, through which the recipient becomes indebted to the giver and some reciprocity is expected.
127 The history of agricultural production in Lushangcuo Village exemplifies broader transformations in the western part of Beidou County. Most of the fields in the village were initially unsuitable for wet-rice cultivation due to the lack of stable water supply, but from the first half of the 1930s, dry fields began to be converted into paddies with pumps. The village was located about 3 kilometres west of the central district of Erlin Township and 3 kilometres east of the coast. It had an area of 8.4 square kilometres and in 1930 consisted of 389 households and 2,966 people. By population, it was the largest village in Shashan Township. Taiwan sōtokukanbō rinjikokuseichōsabu, Shōwagonen kokuseichōsakekka chūkanhō, p. 2.
128 Xieshi dazupu bianji weiyuanhui, Xieshi dazupu [Genealogy of the Xie lineage] (Taichung: 1994)Google Scholar; interview with Xie Shuiwu (1938–), 23 February 2018.
129 Interview with Xie Naishu (1930–), 7 November 2017. Xie Naishu is the third son of Xie Zong.
130 Baokun, Hong, Hokutogun taikan [Overview of Beidou County] (Beidou: Hokutogun taikan kankōkai, 1937), p. .Google Scholar
131 Interview with Xie Liu, 4 May 2019.
132 According to interviews with elderly villagers in Lushangcuo, irrigation water was sold at 100 jin of unhulled rice per 0.1 jia of land, which amounted to as much as 7.6 yen when converted using the price of rice in 1935. However, it only cost 3 yen annually to irrigate 0.1 jia, including loans for installation and operating costs, through co-owning a 15-horsepower electric motor. Shokuryōkyoku, Taiwan beikoku yōran, pp. 94–95; ‘Taichūshūhokutogunka niokeru chikasuikangai ni tsuite’, September 1932, RTPC, File 70-32, pp. 9–10.
133 This does not mean that Xie Zong offered water exclusively to his close relatives and not to other farmers. As was common among Han Taiwanese, land was inherited equally by all sons, so close agnatic kin often owned neighbouring fields around Lushangcuo Village. Therefore, sharing co-ownership of a pump among members of the same sub-lineage would have been much easier than sharing with others.
134 Interview with Xie Liu, 9 July 2020.
135 For example, Marshall Sahlins states: ‘Falling under “the shadow of indebtedness”, the recipient is constrained in his relations to the giver of things. The one who has benefited is held in a peaceful, circumspect and responsive position in relation to his interrelated minimal demands.’ Sahlins, Marshall, Stone Age economics (New York: Aldine, 1972), p. Google Scholar.
136 Hong Baokun, Hokutogun taikan, p. 140.
137 Chen Jianzi had already passed away when Xie Yin gave the chain pump to her brother. Interviews with Xie Liu, 24 November 2019 and 9 July 2020.
138 ‘Denkijikobōshi kyōdōkenkyūkai daihakkai zadankaishiryō’, pp. 14–15.
139 Shokusankyoku, Taiwan no nōgu [Agricultural implements in Taiwan] (Taipei: 1921), pp. 43, 143.
140 On the lack of forest resources and fuel among farmers in colonial Taiwan, see Pin-tsang, Tseng and Yu-jen, Chen, ‘Taijiang diyu shishenghuo de chuantong, bianqian ji qi chuangxin yunyong’ [The tradition, transformation and innovative application of Taijiang foodways], Guojia gongyuan xuebao, vol. 26, no. 2, 2016, p. Google Scholar; Shuntaro, Tsuru, ‘Nihonshokuminchiki Taiwan no kanjinnōka niokeru nō to shoku: kanshasaibaigijutsu no fukyū to saishūkatudō wo jireini’ [Agriculture and food of Han Taiwanese farmers in colonial Taiwan: Case study of technological extension by Japanese sugar companies and farmers’ harvesting practices], Nōgyōshi kenkyū, no. 53, 2019, p. .Google Scholar
141 Interview with Xie Liu, 24 November 2019.
142 Interview with Xie Liu, 15 September 2019.
143 Interview with Xie Liu, 9 July 2020.
144 Interview with Xie Liu, 13 May 2020; interview with Xie Hongwu (1938–), 21 August 2017. Xie Nengxiu (1916–1965), father of Xie Hongwu, worked for the owner of a pump and oversaw the distribution of water to other farmers.
145 Chen Laoduo, a landlord in Erlin Township, sold his motor pump shares to another landlord in 1938. See Taiwan Colonial Court Records Archives, Taichung District Court, notarial deeds, File 201, case no. 10003, p. 25. According to a contemporary publication on water management laws, sales of partial ownership over irrigation facilities were common in colonial Taiwan. See Sadao, Nitta, Taiwansuirihōrei no Kenkyū [A study of water management laws in Taiwan] (Taipei: Taiwansuirihōrei Kenkyūkai, 1937), p. Google Scholar.
146 The Chens constructed a relatively large-scale crop processing factory in 1934 and Chen Jianshang, one of the leaders of the Chen family at the time, was the president of the Beidou and Tianzhong Rice Merchant Association. Hong Baokun, Hokutogun taikan, p. 140.
147 Interview with Luo Qingshui, 26 November 2019.
148 Economic anthropologists who conducted field research in rural Taiwan after the Second World War also found that community and kinship ties played a limited role in people’s economic decisions. See Chungmin, Chen, Upper camp: A study of a Chinese mixed-cropping village in Taiwan (Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, 1977), pp. 111–112Google Scholar; Crismann, Lawrence W., ‘Marketing on the Changhua Plain, Taiwan’, in Economic organization in Chinese society, (ed.) Willmott, W. E. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972), pp. 218–219Google Scholar. Crismann conducted field research in the western part of the Beidou County from 1967–1968 and stated that ‘the most striking feature of the economy of rural Taiwan is its extreme commercialization’ (p. 218).
149 Tsuru, ‘Nirinshanōjiken no haikei no saikentō’, pp. 14–15.
150 Interviews with Xie Liu, 24 November 2019 and 9 July 2020.
151 When I asked Xie Liu what would have happened if the wealthy relative had not shared co-ownership of the motor pump and instead sold water to his close relatives, he replied: ‘We were small [farmers]. It was unbearable.’ Interview with Xie Liu, 7 July 2020.
152 For a rich discussion on the cohesion generated through gift giving, see Hyde, Lewis, The gift: Imagination and the erotic life of property (New York: Vintage Books, 1983), pp. 56–57Google Scholar. Recent studies on the sharing economy in the contemporary service industry have revived Hyde’s theories. See Sundararajan, Arun, The sharing economy: The end of employment and the rise of crowd-based capitalism (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016), pp. 35–36, 44–45.Google Scholar On the casual and open cohesion among people in Beidou County and sharing, see also Tsuru, ‘Nihonshokuminchiki Taiwan no kanjinnōka niokeru nō to shoku’, pp. 5–10. This article explores the gleaning of potatoes and peanuts from fields after the primary harvest by poor residents near Lushangcuo Village. This was a form of sharing by the cultivators as they permitted others to glean the remaining crops on their land under tacit pressure from the poor. As cultivators did not insist on their ownership of the leftover crops on their land, many poor people, not just relatives or other villagers, came during the harvest. Some even knew no one in the village.
153 Ka, Japanese colonialism in Taiwan, p. 170; Naimukyoku dobokuka (ed.), Taiwan suirikankeihōrei ruisan, p. 134.
154 Ka, Japanese colonialism in Taiwan, pp. 175–176.
155 Taiwan yinhang jinrong yanjiushi, Taiwan zhi shuili wenti [Problems of water management in Taiwan] (Taipei: Taiwan yinhang, 1950), pp. 116–120Google Scholar; Qingquan, Huang, ‘Lun Taiwan guangai kaifa zhi xin keti’ [New topics for the development of irrigation in Taiwan], Taiwan shuili, vol. 10, no. 4, 1962, p. .Google Scholar
156 Yiming, Liang, ‘Taiwan dixiashui zhi kaifa yu guanjian’ [The development of groundwater in Taiwan and my thoughts], Tumu gongcheng, vol. 2, no. 2, 1959, pp. 32–38.Google Scholar Hong, Jiang, ‘Taiwandixiashui zhi fenbu jiqi kaifaliyong’ [The distribution of groundwater in Taiwan and its development and utilization], Taiwan shuili, vol. 3, no. 1, 1955, pp. 7–8.Google Scholar
157 Lutan, Xue, ‘Taiwan dixiashui ziyuan zhi kaifa’ [Development of groundwater resources in Taiwan], Taiwan shuili, vol. 7, no. 1, 1959, p. .Google Scholar
158 Tu, Nihonteikokushugika no Taiwan, p. 498. For a detailed discussion of the Chianan Irrigation Project, see Shimizu, Teikokunihon no ‘kaihatsu’ to shokuminchi Taiwan.
159 See Wakabayashi, Taiwan kōnichiundōshi kenkyū; Chou, Riju shidai de Taiwan Yihui Shezhi Qingyuan Yundong.