Ponlai Rice: How a Single Grain Rewrote a Century of Taiwan's Agriculture and Dining Table

30-second overview: The 1918 rice riots in Japan prompted the colonial government to promote rice improvement in Taiwan. After more than a decade of work by agronomists Eikichi Iso and Hitoshi Suenaga, they successfully bred "Ponlai rice," a variety adapted to Taiwan's climate and soils, especially "Taichung No. 65," with its high yield, quality, and disease resistance. This not only met Japan's demand for food but also thoroughly transformed Taiwan's modes of agricultural production and food culture, becoming an important foundation for Taiwan's development over the past century. To this day, the mainstream rice varieties on Taiwanese dining tables almost all carry the lineage of "Taichung No. 65," bearing witness to this grain's far-reaching influence on Taiwanese society.

In August 1918, rice riots broke out in Toyama Prefecture, Japan, shocking the entire country¹. At the time, women in fishing villages took to the streets to petition the authorities because rice prices had soared and they had no rice to cook. The protests quickly spread nationwide and ultimately forced the entire cabinet to resign. This social movement not only exposed Japan's severe domestic food crisis but also led the Japanese government to turn its attention to its colony, Taiwan, in the hope that increased rice production there could solve the empire's food problem¹. Yet the "native rice" widely grown in Taiwan at the time, an indica rice, had a loose texture and low sweetness, very different from the japonica rice, or round-grain rice, to which Japanese consumers were accustomed. This made it difficult for Taiwanese rice to meet the Japanese market's needs directly².

📝 Curator's note: A distant social movement could end up driving changes in the rice served on Taiwan's dining tables; historical connections are often unexpected. This also reminds us that what appears to be a simple food-supply problem often involves complex political and social structures beneath the surface.

To resolve this dilemma, in 1912 a young agronomist, Eikichi Iso, who had just graduated from the College of Agriculture at Tohoku Imperial University, arrived in Taiwan and took on the major task of rice improvement². Before this, the Government-General of Taiwan had introduced 145 Japanese "home-island varieties" of rice for trial cultivation, but they repeatedly failed because they could not adapt to Taiwan's climatic conditions². Drawing on his academic training, Iso systematically classified Taiwan's rice varieties and established the introduction of "home-island varieties" as the direction for Taiwan's rice improvement².

The Long Breeding Path from "Native Varieties" to "Home-Island Varieties"

Iso's arrival brought new hope to rice improvement in Taiwan. He found that Japanese varieties had low grain-setting rates in Taiwan mainly because Taiwan's hot, humid environment shortened flowering time and reduced pollination rates³. At first, his trials in Taipei also met repeated setbacks, but he did not give up. In 1914, based on Mendelian genetics, Iso proposed the method of "pure-line selection" to screen superior strains of Taiwanese rice³. At the same time, he also turned his attention to another key figure: Hitoshi Suenaga.

Suenaga, the son of a farming family from Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, had already come to Chiayi Farm in Taiwan in 1910 to work on rice improvement⁴. He arrived in Taiwan earlier than Iso and won Iso's appreciation through his diligence and expertise in the fields. In 1914, Suenaga was transferred to the Taichung Prefecture experimental farm, where he took charge of hybrid breeding of rice strains and the practical cultivation of Japanese rice. Every morning at dawn he went into the fields to observe seedling growth. Even when he encountered bottlenecks, he discussed countermeasures with Iso. The two worked together as complementary "lead hands," laying a solid foundation for rice-cultivation improvement in Taiwan⁴.

📝 Curator's note: Breakthroughs in scientific research often depend not only on intelligence in the laboratory but also on sweat and persistence in the fields. The collaboration between Eikichi Iso and Hitoshi Suenaga was a model union of theory and practice.

In 1921, Hirasawa Kameichiro, director of agricultural affairs for Taipei Prefecture, discovered healthy Japanese "Nakamura" rice growing at Zhuzihu on Yangmingshan³. Zhuzihu's cool, humid, and fertile environment resembled the climate of Kyushu in Japan, providing excellent conditions for Japanese rice to grow. This discovery became a major turning point in rice improvement³. Suenaga subsequently proposed the epoch-making "young-seedling transplanting method," which changed the plant growth cycle by shortening the seedling period. This successfully solved the problem of Japanese rice heading too early because of the climate and allowed "Nakamura" rice to move from mountain terraces to the plains². From then on, the promotion of Nakamura rice in Taiwan gradually expanded, laying the foundation for the later emergence of Ponlai rice.

The Birth of Ponlai Rice and the Miracle of "Taichung No. 65"

The year 1926 was highly significant for Eikichi Iso and Hitoshi Suenaga. At the "Greater Japan Rice Association" meeting held at the Taipei Railway Hotel, Taiwan Governor-General Izawa Takio formally named the successfully improved "Nakamura" variety "Ponlai rice"². The name not only symbolized a new milestone in Taiwanese agriculture but also carried expectations for the abundant products of Taiwan as the legendary "isle of Penglai." Yet challenges followed one after another after the naming. In July of the same year, Ponlai rice was attacked by rice blast disease, leading to poor harvests and placing enormous pressure on promotion efforts³.

In 1927, the "Showa financial crisis" swept across the world, rice prices plunged, and farmers' willingness to grow Ponlai rice fell sharply². At this moment, Lee Peng-yi, a rice merchant from Huatan, Changhua, stepped forward. He promised to purchase all the Ponlai rice grown by farmers, regardless of whether the harvest was good or bad. Although natural disasters such as rice blast, drought, and typhoons left Lee's rice mill idle for nearly three years in the early period and brought him close to bankruptcy, he still honored his promise and continued supporting farmers³.

📝 Curator's note: Under the dual tests of science and economics, a rice merchant's trust and persistence became a key force in driving agricultural reform. Lee Peng-yi's foresight and sense of responsibility paved the way for the spread of Ponlai rice.

Through the unremitting efforts of Iso and Suenaga, they crossed the insect-resistant variety "Kameji" with the high-yield variety "Shinriki" and in 1929 successfully bred the epoch-making "Taichung No. 65"⁴. This new variety had outstanding traits: high yield, good quality, resistance to rice blast, strong adaptability, and low sensitivity to day length, making it suitable for both of Taiwan's first and second rice crops⁴. That same year, with favorable weather, Lee Peng-yi expanded his purchasing area to 1,500 jia, enabling bumper harvests of Ponlai rice in places such as Dajia, Yuanlin, and Beidou, with yields reaching three times those of native rice³. This success not only allowed Lee to recover his past losses; more importantly, it thoroughly won farmers' confidence. The next year, 75 percent of Taiwan's paddy fields had switched to Ponlai rice, and rice cultivation in Taiwan was transformed from then on³. By 1936, "Taichung No. 65," with more stable disease resistance and adaptability, had largely replaced "Nakamura" and become the mainstream variety of Ponlai rice in Taiwan, opening a new chapter in Taiwanese rice cultivation⁵.

Ponlai Rice's Far-Reaching Impact and Unfinished Debates

The success of Ponlai rice not only resolved Japan's demand for food but also profoundly changed Taiwan's agricultural landscape. It raised rice yields, improved farmers' livelihoods, and pushed Taiwan's agricultural techniques toward modernization. The breeding spirit of Eikichi Iso and Hitoshi Suenaga, together with Lee Peng-yi's commercial foresight, wrote a brilliant page in the history of Taiwanese agriculture. Iso remained in Taiwan after the war to teach and continued devoting himself to Taiwanese agriculture until he returned to Japan in 1957. He has been honored as the "father of Ponlai rice" and "a benefactor of Taiwanese agriculture"³.

Yet the spread of Ponlai rice also came with controversy. The colonial government's push to increase rice production was primarily intended to meet demand in Japan's home islands, not entirely to consider Taiwan's local interests. This meant that Taiwan's agricultural development was, to some extent, constrained by colonial policy and also prompted discussion of structural economic problems such as the conflict between rice and sugar⁶. Under the colonial policy of "industrial Japan, agricultural Taiwan," Taiwan's agricultural production was highly planned. The acreage and output of rice and sugarcane were strictly controlled, and farmers' choices were limited. Although Ponlai rice brought economic benefits, it also intensified Taiwan's role as Japan's "granary," giving Taiwan's economic structure a dual character of "japonica and indica coexistence": native rice was mainly for Taiwanese consumption, while Ponlai rice was exported to Japan in large quantities⁷. This dual structure reflected the complexity and contradictions of Taiwanese agricultural development under colonial rule.

Recent research has further found that the genes of "Taichung No. 65" may have incorporated genes from upland rice grown in Taiwan's mountains. This suggests that, beyond human effort, gene introgression in nature also played an unexpected role in the breeding process, adding further layers of interpretation to this history⁴⁸. This finding challenges the traditional view that breeding was entirely attributable to scientists' precise operations and reveals a miracle woven from both natural and human factors.

The story of Ponlai rice is an epic of science, perseverance, commerce, and social change. It is not only the story of a single grain of rice, but also a microcosm of how Taiwan has sought survival and development over the past century within complex historical circumstances. To this day, the mainstream rice varieties on Taiwanese dining tables, such as Taikeng No. 9 and Koshihikari, almost all carry the lineage of "Taichung No. 65." This grain is not only a cornerstone of Taiwan's food security but also an important legacy of Taiwan's agricultural modernization⁵. As we savor the fragrant, springy texture of Ponlai rice, we should also look back on this history in which every grain came through hard labor, and on the pioneers who devoted their lives to it. Their stories have long since become part of Taiwan's land and culture.

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