MOEA to leave farmland fallow

In a bid to avert more water shortages this spring, the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday decided to leave 28,000 hectares of agricultural land in the north unseeded, at a total cost of NT$1.5 billion in compensation to affected farmers.

At a meeting held by the MOEA yesterday to discuss the project with other agencies, including the Council of Agriculture and water resource units, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Yin Chi-ming (尹啟銘) said that the decision was made based on the government's inability to precisely predict weather conditions.

Yin added that the decision would help save a lot of water.

"We can definitely meet the water demand from the residential sector because the amount of water we have stored in Shihmen Dam will not be less than 47.5 million tonnes by the end of May," Yin said.

Yin said that the water level on Monday was up to 229.7m, or about 53 percent of the reservoir's capacity. Shihmen Dam is one of major reservoirs in northern Taiwan.

Meanwhile, at the Feitsui Reservoir in Taipei County, which supplies Taipei City and parts of Taipei County, the water level was up to 157.67m, or about 68 percent of its capacity.

"We estimate that it will be unnecessary to impose restrictions on water supplies for residential use this year," Yin said.

Yin said, however, that residents will still have to play their part and conserve water resources.

Although the Central Weather Bureau forecast it was 80 percent probable that Taiwan would get more than the average amount of rain this spring, the MOEA is taking no chances and prefers to leave selected farmland fallow to avoid a repeat of problems it faced last year.

Because of the government's failure to manage water resources early last year, northern Taipei was hit by a prolonged water shortage starting in late February, forcing the COA to divert water from farmland irrigation to supply high-tech firms in Hsinchu's science industrial park.

Chen Shen-hsien (陳伸賢), spokesman for the Water Resources Agency, said yesterday that the MOEA had arranged for farmland near the Touchien River and some agricultural fields irrigated by Shihmen Dam to lie fallow this spring.

"The area of total farmland set to be left unseeded is 28,000 hectares, and NT$1.5 billion will be allocated to compensate farmers affected by the action," Chen said.

Chen said that compensation will vary, but that farmers will be compensated between NT$19,000 and NT$60,000 per hectare, depending on the crop.

Representatives of several irrigation associations in the north, however, expressed their disappointment yesterday at the project, saying that the compensation system might cause problems to farmers.

Lee Tsung-chi (李總集), chairman of the Taoyuan Irrigation Association, said farmers were expecting compensation of above NT$60,000 for each hectare of farmland.

"It is obvious that this government favors the country's industry over the country's agriculture," Lee said.