Harnessing Raptors for Pest Control for the Protection of the Sugarcane Farm
As a leading sugar brand in Taiwan, TSC pays attention to food safety. All of its sugarcane plantations have passed the TGAP certification and follow the Taiwan Good Agricultural Practices (TGAP) in production. In 2022, with the support of the Department of Agriculture and Food Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, TSC collaborated with the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology in the "Promoting the Introduction of Eco-friendly Control Technology into Taiwan Good Agricultural Practices- Eco-friendly Rodent Control and Monitoring in Sugarcane Field and Promotion of Sugar Industry Ecology" project, adopting the spirit of non-chemical agricultural control, and setting up perches at the cane farms in Taisugar's Tsengwen Farm under its jurisdiction. We made use of the nature of birds of prey that likes to stand on high ground to attract them to live in the fields to catch wild rodents, using natural predators to control rodent infestations in sugarcane fields. This project has initially verified that ecological agriculture is effective. In addition to reducing the use of rodenticides, this approach also protects endangered species and biodiversity while taking into account crop productivity, successfully creating a new model of harmonious coexistence between agriculture and ecology.
In February 2024, TSC expanded the project to Yunlin Longyan Farm and Tongan Farm. Currently, there are 3 sugarcane farms with a total of 10 raptor perches. In the same year, TSC won the Gold Award of bronze award at the Taiwan Sustainability Action Award (TSAA)- for "Protecting Cane Farm by Using Raptors to Catch Rodents". Since the establishment of the TSAA (Sustainability Action Award), TSC has won the award for four consecutive years. TSC’s ESG execution and outstanding results have been repeatedly recognized and praised externally.
The ecological record of this project has yielded fruitful results. In addition to the Formosa hare and ring-necked pheasant, as many as 11 species of raptors were observed on the perches, including Elanus caeruleus, Tyto longimembris, Ninox scutulata, Pandion haliaetus, Spilornis cheela, Accipiter gularis, Falco tinnunculus, Accipiter virgatus, Otus lettia, Buteo hemilasius and Buteo japonicus, among which the Tyto longimembris, a critically endangered Tier 1 protected wild species, is the most precious. In addition, a rare winter migratory bird, the "Buteo hemilasius", was spotted at the Tongan Farm, indicating that the Taiwan Sugar Corporation's sugarcane fields provide good natural resources and conditions, sufficient to serve as a suitable wintering habitat.