Every year, August 9th is designated as the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples by the United Nations. This day serves as a call to action, urging society to recognize and respect the rights of indigenous peoples and to acknowledge their significant contributions to language, culture, land management, and natural resource conservation. It also reminds us that in the face of challenges like climate change, food crises, and the loss of biodiversity, the generational wisdom of indigenous peoples offers a way to survive.
Taiwan's indigenous tribes also possess invaluable wisdom for coexisting with nature and preserving precious traditional farming techniques. Through the long-term work of the Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation, we've had the privilege of working alongside tribal communities. In doing so, we've seen that seeds not only carry the potential for food crops but also hold memory, culture, and ecology.

Seed Preservation of Nan'an Beans: Wisdom and Resilience from a Gravelly Land
Ten years ago, the Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation began assisting the Bunun people of the Nan'an community—at the foot of Yushan (Jade Mountain) and on the banks of the Lakulaku River—in transitioning to organic rice farming. During this process, they made a surprising discovery: the small family vegetable gardens scattered across the field ridges, next to houses, and on hillsides were actually crucial hubs for preserving agricultural diversity. These small plots were filled with local beans like scarlet runner beans, adzuki beans, hyacinth beans, peas, and cowpeas, all of which were treasured heirlooms passed down and bred by the community for generations.

The Bunun people are known as "the tribe most skilled at preserving bean seed sources in Taiwan." For them, beans are not just a source of protein; they are also a precious resource that helps withstand drought, fix nitrogen, and nourish the soil. These beans, which often grow on arid and barren gravelly land, have been self-selected and bred over generations, developing an incredibly strong adaptation to the local environment. This makes them one of the most important food resources for a world facing extreme climate change.

For years, the Tse-Xin Foundation has worked with the community to preserve these valuable seeds and their stories through interviews, guided workshops, and ecotourism. In recent years, they have also published a series of books, including Into Pisanglafo, which features The Bunun's Vegetable Garden and Dina and Her Seeds . These books document how Bunun women exchange seeds, learn from nature, and use their gardens as a way to continue their memories. For the Bunun people, every bean is a cultural password and an ecological microcosm of the tribe.

Millet Restoration in Hualien and Taitung: Bringing Millet Back to the Children’s Table
Millet was once the most important staple food in Taiwan's mountainous forests and a central part of the rituals and daily life for most indigenous peoples. Historical records show over 200 varieties of millet in Taiwan, but with agricultural modernization and population migration, the area of land used for millet cultivation has shrunk drastically, with most of it now confined to a few small farms within tribal communities.

According to research by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), millet is a highly climate-resilient food crop due to its drought resistance, low water consumption, high nutritional value, and low carbon footprint. As a result, the UN designated 2023 as the International Year of Millets to encourage countries worldwide to promote its cultivation.

Since 2019, the Tse-Xin Foundation has been promoting a "Millet Restoration Project" in Hualien and Taitung. The project discovered that dozens of precious millet varieties still existed in the communities, but they were in danger of being lost due to a lack of technical knowledge, an aging population, and a broken industrial chain.

To address the planting challenges, we collaborated with the Ministry of Agriculture to introduce organic seed coating technology. This has improved the seeds' disease resistance and germination rates, reduced planting waste, and lowered labor costs, giving the millet a better chance to be successfully planted, grown, and harvested.

During the harvest season, the biggest threat is damage from birds. To combat this, the Tse-Xin Foundation also partnered with government agencies and farmers to introduce "full-coverage bird netting" technology, which helps farmers protect their hard-earned harvests and achieve a win-win for both conservation and production.

The Tse-Xin Foundation has inventoried and collected millet varieties, helped farmers solve issues with pests, diseases, and birds, supported the cultivation of diverse millet strains, and hosted millet seed preservation exchange meetings. We've also collaborated with Taiwan Seed Improvement and Propagation Station, MOA to propagate and renew 178 millet varieties, returning healthy seeds to the farmers to ensure local seed preservation.

To reintegrate millet into daily life, we've launched a Millet Food and Agriculture Education Program so that tribal schools and community senior care centers can eat rice made from locally grown millet. It is estimated that 48 tribal schools and over 4,000 teachers, students, and elders will get to taste this flavor of their own culture.

Furthermore, Tse-Xin has partnered with a food company to launch a "Millet Sweet Rice Wine" , with 50% of the profits being donated to the millet seed preservation and school programs, allowing the seeds of culture to continue to grow.

Traditional Wisdom: The Answer to Our Future
The bean gardens of the Nan'an Bunun tribe and the millet restoration efforts, along with the long-standing Malavi Project in partnership with E.SUN Bank, all highlight the power of traditional wisdom. In this project, indigenous farmers manage organic rice paddies, using their ancestral knowledge to foster biodiversity. This has transformed the area into the largest wild habitat for the endemic and protected species, the Kikuchi's minnow (Aphyocypris kikuchii). Sharing this case study at the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 29) demonstrated that indigenous wisdom isn't just a historical legacy; it's a guide for the future. In the face of today's climate crisis and food insecurity, reclaiming and valuing this agricultural wisdom—which is rooted in coexisting and communicating with the land—is the best way to combat uncertainty.
On International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, we invite everyone not just to "understand" indigenous cultures, but to "learn from" and "support" these deep-rooted ways of life. The Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation will continue to walk into villages, vegetable gardens, and millet fields, accompanying every local seed guardian, so that each seed can become a support for hope.