Insufficiently Dried Rice: The Conflict Between Socioecology and Technology Adoption in Colonial Taiwan

When Japan incorporated Taiwan into its imperial rice supply chain in the early twentieth century, it soon encountered trading difficulties caused by insufficient drying of Taiwanese rice, which it sought to overcome by promoting thermal drying technologies. However, these efforts saw limited success prior to the end of colonial rule. Drawing on archival research and employing perspectives from science and technology studies, this article situates farmers’ technology adoption within Taiwan’s socioecology of rice, which shaped local perceptions, values, and social relationships regarding rice drying and constituted specific economic rationalities, market cultures, and agricultural practices. The modern thermal dryers that were introduced, while aligning with Japanese commodification demands, were poorly articulated with the local socioecology and thereby failed to replace the sun-drying method. The experience of colonial Taiwan highlights the development of technology in relation to diverse organizing principles of socioecology, illuminating how the adoption of agricultural modernization technologies hinges on radical transformations in human–environment relationships within a society.