There is a county district in the hills between Miaoli and Hsinchu, with a population of less than 20,000, whose story reflects the changes that rural communities all across Taiwan are going through during this time of transition. Nanchuang Township has always lived off the hills on which it settles, with its residents working in lumber, bamboo and mining, and devoting their spare time to raising chickens, pigs and cows. There was never a lot of money about, but people did not have to worry about going short.

The sudden take-off of industry and commerce in Taiwan created numerous work opportunities in the cities however, and the young people began leaving in droves, taking most of the area's productive capacity with them. There is no longer much to be made from coal after so many years of mining it from the hills, while forestry work has died out locally and the price for bamboo has sunk. Meanwhile, the traditional sideline raising animals, which was never worth much, cannot compete with large-scale stockbreeding. Like many other rural communities on the decline, Nanchuang Township faces the predicament of where its future lies.

It is a situation that disturbed Chang Yueh-chi, engineering official at the township's District Affairs Office. As she knew well from her own visits abroad, there are villages to be found that are living examples of "ugly ducklings" becoming "beautiful swans," and the fact was that Nanchuang, with its fine scenery, was attracting more and more visitors at weekends and on holidays. "Why not establish Nanchuang as a place for recreation and tourism?" she thought.

Rather than just letting the idea slip by, she really decided to act on it. Three years ago she selected a suitably attractive area set against the hills, called Three Corner Lake, and harried the relevant local departments into building an activities center and restaurant there, for the reception of visitors. The way that she pictured it, the emphasis in the Nanchuang recreation & tourism area would be quite different from in most other sightseeing areas. "Our goal is for improvements in the life of the local people," says Chang. Thus it is that all the meat on the restaurant menu, be it chicken, duck, fish or pork, as well as milk, is produced in the area, as are many items on sale at the activities center, such as jars of pickle and wooden or bamboo household articles. Even the materials used in the construction of the center and the restaurant were locally purchased, and so it is that the profits go back into the community.

Chang proudly reveals that the Three Corner Lake Leisure Center makes over NT$1 million in the forty or so days of summer that it currently opens for, yet has an area of only one hectare, a tiny fraction of the whole township. After expenditure is taken into account, that leaves a surplus of more than NT$200,000.

"It's not a great deal," she explains, "but it already accounts for the entire output of farm produce from the neighboring village of Tungho." With prospects for the Nanchuang sightseeing area looking good, it is planned to expand to 70 hectares in size. Says Chang Yueh-chi: "the next aim, in addition to increasing revenue to the locals for their produce, is to stem the flow of people out of the area, and enable them to run their own concerns here at home." It is a goal which is not far off, since the local youth have already begun returning to Tungho Village.

Nanchuang Township is not a unique example. From Ilan in the north to Pingtung in the south, Hualien in the east to the Pescadores in the west, farming communities all across the province are moving into the leisure and recreation business. Academics have named it "recreation agriculture"--developing a sightseeing trade on a farming foundation.

"This is one step on from farming," says Li Chin--lung, director of the Farmers Service Department at the Council of Agriculture. "We hope to see farming progress from its productive function into the tertiary sector, providing a service."

Rice paddies, orchards, floriculture, pig-breeding . . . by one means or another farming has always been about production. But the gradual decline of traditional agriculture is inevitable in the face of changing patterns of manpower, economic development and rapid industrialization.

According to the experts, farming can be revitalized on the production side through such means as processing of agricultural produce, cooperation between production and marketing, and the output of products with higher added value. On the non-production side, farming has its own particular features, scenery and so on, which all have a great appeal to those living in the crowded city, and are the best asset in any attempt to develop sightseeing. That is how recreation agriculture sprang up.

Germany is where recreation agriculture first appeared. The original name in German roughly means "taking a vacation on the farm," says Li Chin-lung. What is especially stressed--unlike most tourist activities -- is actually taking part, and gaining first hand experience of nature in the process, for instance by catching mudfish, picking fruit, learning to distinguish between different types of crops, seeing the cows being milked and so on.

In Taiwan, the idea has only gained ground since the economic boom of recent years. Country gardens and fruit farms aimed at the tourism trade really caught on here during the 1980s, and can be seen as prototypes for recreation agriculture. The basic idea is also seen in practice in a number of sightseeing areas which depend on farms, forests, fishing and animal-raising for their charm. But these usually remain as smallscale ventures, without big impact.

As envisioned at the Council of Agriculture, recreation agriculture in Taiwan will embrace farming, livestock, forestry and fishing in line with the special features of each area. Visitors will get to admire the countryside in its endless seasonal transformation, and have a go at growing rice, picking tea or catching fish. They can also experience local culture in progress, and see temple festivities, open-air performances and prayers for the harvest. There will be educational activities to choose from, such as a local museum to visit, or a country park where rural life is represented in condensed form. Very likely there will also be more general fun on offer too, like paddle-boats, frog-fishing, baking sweet potatoes and so on.

Senior specialist at the Council of Agriculture Lin Tze-lien describes the benefits this way: "Once recreation agriculture gets under way, it will provide visitors with leisure sites, bring town and country closer together, increase contacts between the residents of each, and lead to improved rural civic facilities. Moreover it will increase income and work opportunities for farming families."

But although a bright future is seen ahead for recreation agriculture in Taiwan, the present reality is still a long way from that dream. Only some five or six out of the twenty-five centers planned by the Council for Agriculture, including the one in Nanchuang Township, and the Shangri-la Farm in Ilan County, have actually got off the ground. Most are no further than simply finding a site. "It is all still at the visualization stage," says Professor Tsai Hong-chin of National Taiwan University's Department of Agricultural Extension. And as Lin Tze-lien admits, some of the private farms, smaller and somewhat shabby, "owe more to tourism than they do to agriculture."

The emphasis on a farming atmosphere is what really sets recreation agriculture apart from other branches of tourism, and its appeal to consumers lies just in that genuine local flavor. But something that is not yet seen in Taiwan is the single theme "produce" tour, such as in Germany, where visitors are attracted to villages along the Rhine specializing in viticulture and others around Bonn that concentrate on dairy production, or in Denmark, where the flower trade in the cities is introduced to tourists. "We still focus on scenic resorts," says Professor Tsai.

Another feature of Taiwan's tourist farms is that they are invariably fenced off from their surroundings. To compensate, they tend to try and pack too much inside. As Professor Tsai puts it: "an excess of wood cabins and flower beds gives them a very artificial air." On the other hand, it has only been two years since the notion of recreation agriculture took shape in Taiwan, so this could be seen as a short-term measure to attract customers, in view of the current preferences of domestic tourists. Lin Tze-lien describes it as "responding on the move." In other words get your customers over the threshold before you worry about anything else, or as Tsai Hong-chin puts it: "improvise."

In fact, an important question is whether or not the authentic experience of farming life is what visitors actually want? Because of the close ties that exist between town and country in Taiwan, many city-dwellers are just one generation away from a rural home, with relatives still there. For them, life on the farm is nothing strange. Furthermore, the fact that town and country are always in close proximity and easily accessible to one another means that the experience of getting back to the land will not necessarily have the same popularity here that it does in other countries. This would explain why tourist farms have so far shown little interest in providing overnight stays and a more rural experience.

Nevertheless, it is essential that visitors are encouraged to stay for longer than just a day-trip, if an improvement in rural incomes really is one of the key goals of recreation agriculture. People staying over equals money left behind, and the proceeds from catering and accommodation are of great value to the locals. Enabling visitors to have a small vacation rather than just a swift shopping tour is one of the fundamentals of recreation agriculture in the West. But another important consideration is the standard of behavior of the tourists, especially if they are to stay in peoples' homes. In today's crime-ridden society, farming communities do not necessarily welcome the arrival of un known guests. The popular Hakka village of Meinung for instance, has made it clear that day-trippers are welcome, but not recreation agriculture: "Our worry is that visitors might disrupt the local way of life," says Chen Wen-chin of the Meinung Farmers Association. But according to Professor Tsai, it is a situation that will improve with time: "This form of tour activity will catch on as the practices of domestic travelers get better."

Another obstacle to raising rural incomes through recreation agriculture is that farming communities are inexperienced in operating sightseeing, and will therefore turn to outside organizations for assistance, which means that the revenue generated will not necessarily find its way back into local pockets. "This is a key problem which will eventually decide the success or failure of recreation agriculture," says Professor Tsai. "It defeats the whole object of the exercise if local people don't get the benefits."

At the moment, there are three types of recreation farm management currently in operation: Direct control by the farmers association; a cooperative of local inhabitants (such as Nanchuang Farm); and management by a private enterprise. In the case of the first two, money goes where it belongs, but the third type, involving external investment, represents a threat to the original objective. One risk is that a company may purchase a large plot of land ostensibly to develop recreation agriculture, but then build luxury housing to multiply its value, because there are inadequate restrictions on the eventual use of sites designated for leisure. In precaution against this happening, the Council of Agriculture is working with the relevant authorities to amend regulations and tighten rural zoning controls.

How about the possibility of problems over the distribution of profits in those ventures run solely by the local people? Chang Yueh-chi of the Nanchuang Farm has locked into the experience of other recreation farms, and has the opinion that it simply requires an impartial and objective member of the community to arbitrate if necessary. On the other hand, problems have been known to arise over respective workloads, and "who is always late or always taking days off," she says with a laugh.

Perhaps the next most important doubt about recreation farming, other than its ability to bring benefits to the local area, is whether or not it has a real potential to fulfill. "What does the countryside in Taiwan have to offer, apart from nice views?" asks Hsiao Kun-sun, also a professor at National Taiwan University's Department of Agricultural Extension. In many villages, old farming implements are exhibited without a decent explanation, and look no better than common scrap. There was once a plan to link a number of traditional courtyard-style farmhouses together on a tourist trail, during which it was revealed just how few actually remain in their original state. Meanwhile, some country towns and villages have been thwarted in their attempts to arrange annual cultural events that highlight traditional local products, on finding out that the artisans are no longer about.

"But at least it's a start," says Professor Tsai looking on the bright side. It is the problems that are encountered during this initial phase that will get people thinking, and encourage the conservation of irreplaceable cultural artifacts. And this may well be more significant itself than the actual development of recreation agriculture.

[Picture Caption]

A spring festival carrot-picking contest at Chiangchun in Tainan County drew many participants from the city. One of the basic ideas of recreation agriculture is to boost rural sightseeing on the strength of existing local features.

(Above)Nanchuang's greatest asset for recreation agriculture is its scenery.

(Below) Grain stores on display at Pingtung Junior College of Agriculture. The unusual design is said tp prevent pests. Rural installations car benefit education as well as tourism.

Children viewing a display of objects from traditional farm life, at the rural park in Panchiao.

Chicken farming becomes a tourist attraction. Recreation agriculture emphasizes the real face of farming.

Visitors to Chiangchun learning the finer points of chicken-raising.

（Above）Nanchuang's greatest asset for recreation agriculture is its scenery.

（Below） Grain stores on display at Pingtung Junior College of Agriculture. The unusual design is said tp prevent pests. Rural installations car benefit education as well as tourism.

Children viewing a display of objects from traditional farm life, at the rural park in Panchiao.

Chicken farming becomes a tourist attraction. Recreation agriculture emphasizes the real face of farming.

Visitors to Chiangchun learning the finer points of chicken-raising.