Repair your own machinery

Meeting in the shade of a large tree outside a small rice-processing factory in rural Kaohsiung’s Qishan each Tuesday morning is a group of mainly farmers from 9 villages in the districts of Qishan and Meinong; all of the participants attend Qimei Community Universty (旗美社大學). Arriving one after another with an assortment of small-scale farming machinery and devises, participants are here to attend the “Small-scale Farm Machinery Maintenance and Improvement Course”, taught by former lecturer at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Chen Guang-hui (陳光輝). 

After retiring as a college lecturer, Chen Guang-hui originally planned to spend his retirement years touring around with his wife. However, after seeing local people struggle to repair and maintain small-scale farming machinery, he decided to begin teaching at a number of community universities.

Under his guidance, students learn the basic principles of machinery and gain the confidence to disassemble their farm machinery for inspection. If they are not able to fix it immediately, they can call Chen Guang-hui and attempt to solve the problem talking over the telephone. Multitalented Chen Guang-hui also modifies farming equipment, making the devices more user-friendly and easier to operate.

Prior to the opening of this course at the community universities, regardless of the severity of the problem, all machinery had to be sent to a professional agricultural mechanics for repair. Repairs, however, often took several days, holding up farming work and wasting money. An added bonus is that classes have become a wonderful opportunity for students to exchange farming insights and experiences with each other.

Repair your own machinery 

URL:http://www.peopo.org/news/291635

(以下是中文對照)

自己的農機自己修

每週二早上位於高雄旗山農田間的小型米廠前大樹下，來自旗美九鄉鎮大部份是農民的旗美社大學員，陸續帶著自己家裡使用的小型農機具前來，由前屏科大生物機電系陳光輝講師指導「小型農業機械保養與改良」課。

陳光輝老師自學校退休後，原本要帶著太太四處遊山玩水，卻因為看到農友對小型農機維修的需求，於是開始投入幾所社大的教學。學員在他的帶領下，瞭解機械基本原理後，比較有信心敢大膽拆解農機檢查，即使無法立即修復，也可嘗試用電話和老師連線解決可能的問題。而多才多藝的陳老師也會改裝適合某種農事的小型機具，讓農友操作起來更順手。

在社大沒有這類課程前，無論農機發生任何大大小小的故障只能運往農機行送修，但是往往一拖就是好幾天，既延誤農事又耗費金錢。而一項額外的收獲是，每次上課時間就是農友們彼此交換耕作心得和經驗的最佳機會。