The excessive amount of agricultural commodities has caused a drastic drop in the price this year. Things were getting worse when the organic cabbage reaped in Jianshih township, at an altitude of 1,450 meters, still had to retain its price to make ends meet a higher cost for transportation, bringing about the stagnant winter for the farmers at Jianshih.

Knowing the plight of the agricultural commodities in Jianshih, Taipei Tech Architecture went mountain to come up with some ideas with the farmers of Shihlei Tribe to solve the problems. Effective marketing like brand establishing and cooperative economy are the eligible solutions to the poorly sold vegetable.

Taipei Tech Architecture has been doing the bilateral communication with the indigenous tribe in Yuan village of Jianshih over the population decline since 2009. To encourage the indigenous youth to return to work in their hometown, a project of bringing good economic outlook for the community is considered one of the main triggers for those urban bound tribe youth.

Therefore, Taipei Tech, in cooperation with Chung Yuan Christian University, implemented the project, including the establishment of the agricultural brands, buildups of the marketing platform, or creative souvenirs. The students further utilized their specialties in the architectural and business design to renovate the public spaces of the tribe by building up an agricultural marketing platform that also functions as the senior care and activity center. In December this year, with the name of “the Shihlei Friendly Vege” promoted online, the vegetable fair held by the local tribe and these students has ended in success.

 “I was quite impressed with the Shihlei tribe people’s optimism and love for their environment,” said the senior student Chang Ying Han of Taipei Tech Architecture. “This is not just a required course of volunteering; instead, it is a great opportunity to help others with my specialties.”

“I felt more than achieved when the tourists showed their interests coming to the stalls we designed,” said the master student Wu Shih Ching of Taipei Tech Architecture.

Taipei Tech Dean of College of Design, Huang Chih Hong, indicated that it would have been a great pity if these healthily and organically grown high-quality vegetable and fruits were left unsalable because they are priced much higher for a higher transportation cost. Therefore, the residents here agreed immediately when we made this proposal of cooperation to make an attempt to sell their products in a different way.

“We want more people to buy the vegetable of high quality,” he said.

Huang also indicated that the cooperative economy is still an eligible way of sustainable operation for small-holder farming in many regions in Europe. On the basis of that, Taipei Tech tries to sell the agricultural goods through the co-op stores on campus to promote the brand and the products of Shihlei tribe in the heart of the urban area.

“Now there has been nine young people returning to the tribe in the second half of this year,” said Huang. “This is considered a fruitful result of our efforts in realizing university social responsibilities these years, or even corporate social responsibilities if this marketing strategy becomes maturer.”

“Hopefully the tribe will have an independent operation on managing and marketing their commodities following the cooperative economy mode, and thus becomes prosperous in the future,” Huang said.