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COA says it will make amendments to farm subsidies

The Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday that to better alleviate the burden of farmers when disasters hit, amendments to agricultural disaster relief regulations are in the works, including modifications to increase the amount of subsidies and lower the eligibility threshold.

The announcement came two days after a visit to the south by Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) to flood-hit farmlands.

In response to some farmer’s criticisms that Liu had visited too late to see any remnants of the damage, Liu promised that the government would help cover their losses by providing more substantial subsidies.

“The Agricultural Natural Disaster Relief Regulations (農業天然災害救助辦法) says the threshold for farmers to receive subsidies is set at several different levels,” the council’s chief of farmer welfare, Chu Jin-shi (朱金錫), said.

Farmers can apply for subsidies when their whole region [for example, the whole of Yunlin County, or an entire village] suffers damage over an amount set by the COA [for example, NT$180 million], or if a single crop suffers significant losses over an entire region [for example, 20 percent of rice in Pingtung county].

Farmers whose crops are hit by a disaster, but do not meet the above criteria, are eligible to apply for “special case” subsidies if their losses exceed 10 percent of their total production, Chu said.

“In view of the inflexibility of the last criteria, we are looking to amend Article 14 in the Regulation, and remove the 10 percent prerequisite — after the amendment, all farmers will be able to apply for special subsidies if their losses are deemed significant by their local government officials,” he said.

To help farmers meet increased production costs as a result of increased prices, the COA is looking to increase the amount of subsidies payable, Chu said.

““The amount payable to rice paddies, for example, will be increased by 23 percent, from NT$13,000 per hectare, to NT$16,000,” Chu said.

Because vegetable farms have historically been hardest hit, they will receive the largest increase in subsidies, from NT$16,500 per hectare to NT$24,000, or 45 percent, he said.
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