"Disease and pest resistance is the most important thing here in Taiwan," says Yu. Living as we do on a small, densely populated island with a humid climate and an abundance of diseases and pests, farmers make heavy use of agricultural chemicals. Indeed, they rank No. 1 in Asia on this score.
「抗病蟲害能力對台灣尤其重要，」余淑美說，台灣地窄人稠，氣候濕熱，病蟲害多，因此農藥使用量大，排名亞洲之冠，如果能推廣抗病基改作物，就可以解決這一大農業沈痾。