Thousands of people plant rice in 2 hectares of rice fields to challenge the Guinness World Record

Taiwan's rice is of excellent quality. Domestic rice was sold to the mainland in July this year. Currently, domestic rice has been successfully exported to 27 countries including Japan, the United States, Canada, Australia, and the European Union. In order to showcase the strength of Taiwan's rice and raise awareness of the Taiwanese people's rice culture, the Council of Agriculture will launch an event called "Thousands of People Planting Rice to Challenge the Guinness World Record."

‎The Council of Agriculture held a Guinness World Record-breaking event for 1,000 people to transplant rice seedlings. Vice Chairman Chen Wende (second from left) personally demonstrated the movements of transplanting rice seedlings. (Photo by Zhang Shijie)

Chen Wende, deputy chairman of the Council of Agriculture, pointed out that the current Guinness World Record for the most people planting rice is set by Thailand in 2010, when 904 people completed 1.6 hectares of rice planting in 30 minutes and 35 seconds. On August 18, 1,200 farmers will be invited, and it is expected that 3 million seedlings will be used to complete the feat of planting seedlings in 2 hectares of farmland within 25 minutes, challenging the Guinness World Record.

This event uses high-quality "Taoyuan No. 3 New Fragrant Rice" seedlings. The oldest participant is 91 years old and the youngest is 16 years old. The scene of three generations farming together symbolizes the inheritance and sustainable management of agriculture. It is hoped that the Guinness World Records will be broken in terms of the number of people, time, and area planted, and that unity and cohesion will be achieved to promote the benefits of rice consumption.

Chen Wende emphasized that "eating more rice" has many benefits, as rice is rich in carbohydrates and dietary starch, which are important nutrients that are indispensable to the body. However, in recent years, the rate of rice intake in Chinese people has dropped significantly, while the intake of fats has increased significantly, resulting in an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Therefore, people should be encouraged to eat good rice.

In addition, "eating more food" can reduce the pressure on domestic rice fields left fallow. Taking the country's 380,000 hectares of farmland rice irrigation area as an example, its area is equivalent to the cooling effect produced by 6 Feicui Reservoirs, which is more or less helpful in reducing carbon emissions and alleviating global warming.

The Council of Agriculture emphasized that the challenge of the Guinness World Record for planting rice by a thousand people, with the intention of rolling up their trouser legs and sweating while planting rice, is to arouse the Taiwanese people's gratitude for the early ancestors who planted rice manually, to drive the Taiwanese people to pay more attention to the rice industry, and then to eat locally produced domestic rice for every meal, supporting Taiwan's agriculture and hardworking farmers.