PINGTUNG, Taiwan -- For three decades, Chiu Ming-sung raised his family with income mainly from his four-hectare areca -- or betel -- nut farms in Taiwan's southernmost city of Pingtung.
In its heyday from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, the areca nuts alone brought him 800,000 New Taiwan dollars ($26,700) to NT$1,500,000 per hectare of land. Over the years, prices of the nuts plunged two-thirds from their peak in the mid-1990s to today. Betel nuts are blamed for causing some of Taiwan's leading cancer types, while areca plantations contribute to soil erosion, increasing the risk of landslides and water pollution.
