TAIWAN, Nov 16 — Indigenous farmer Banu Ismahasan walks through a golden field of tall stalks in southeastern Taiwan, harvesting by hand the grain heads of an ancient crop resistant to extreme weather.
Once grown by Indigenous farmers in Taiwan in case their staple crops died, oil millet largely disappeared from fields more than 60 years ago as rice became more available.
Over the past decade, Ismahasan and his elderly parents have worked to revive the nearly forgotten crop in the Bunun community in Buklavu, a village surrounded by lush green mountains in Taitung county.
“We just hope to bring back many traditional Bunun crops and grow them on this land again,” Ismahasan, 48, told AFP in his oil millet field under a clear blue sky.
