Page 4 - 2018 Annual Report Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan

Preface In recent years Taiwan's agricultural sector has faced a number of challenges both internal and external, including intensifying climate change, depletion of natural resources, fragmenting of arable land, extreme competition from highly liberalized international trade, severe price uctuations, a shortage of agricultural labor, and an aging farming population. These problems make it urgent to undertake agricultural transformation and industrial upgrading. Raising farmers' incomes and ensuring that consumers can buy safe agricultural products are major policy goals of the Council of Agriculture (COA). Starting with the objectives of ensuring the well- being of farmers, industrial guidance, and improving infrastructure, the COA actively resolves farmers' problems, adjusts the industrial structure, and makes it possible for policy to be promoted in a pragmatic manner and in step with the times, thereby advancing agricultural modernization and innovation. In 2018 Taiwan enjoyed good weather, making it a bumper harvest year for agriculture. Taiwan exported US$5.47 billion worth of agriproducts, which was a new high over the last 20 years. Although there was a very serious epidemic of African swine fever in mainland China in 2018, the COA immediately initiated a variety of disease prevention measures, keeping the disease outside our borders. Agricultural policy implementation also continued to move forward: We have already completed the foundational work, seen many historic changes, and achieved a number of successes. Of these, several of the most important are as follows. Promoting direct payments on farmland and organic and eco-friendly cultivation To adjust the rice industry and encourage farmers to produce high- quality rice, in 2018 the COA implemented the “direct payments on farmland” policy nationwide. For the whole year, farmers applied to collect direct payments covering an area of 53,000 hectares, accounting for 31% of the 172,000 hectares of the approved rice-growing area, while there were 137,000 hectares producing under contract. These numbers show a preliminary reduction in the dependence of rice farmers on the “guaranteed prices purchasing” policy, as well as an increased supply of grain crops other than rice. In order to promote an increase in organic farming, the government, taking into 全力以赴 再創佳績