Farmers, farmers’ rights advocates and legislators slammed government officials over a farming village recovery bill that they said would harm agriculture more than help it in a public hearing yesterday on the bill.
The bill, which was submitted by the Cabinet and passed initial review at the legislature in December, worries many farmers and farmers’ rights activists, as it mainly deals with allowing farm estate development projects, embellishing farming villages and repairing houses in farming communities.
The bill stipulates that the government would spend more than NT$200 billion (US$5.7 billion) over a 10-year period on the projects.
“Farming communities around the country need some kind of stimulus program now, but looking at this farming village recovery bill, the government seems to want to resolve all the issues facing farming communities through spending more money on construction — this is just ridiculous,” said Liao Pen-chuan (廖本全), an urban planning professor at National Taipei University.
“The bill allows use of farmlands for other purposes, but how come it mentions nothing about using farmlands for farming or increasing production?” he asked.
Wu Tung-chieh (吳東傑), executive director of the environmental and organic farming advocacy group Green Formosa Front Association, agreed with Liao.
“Agriculture has declined because of failed agricultural policies in the past. Now please tell me what good is a farming village recovery bill that would only create beautiful houses and fields without farmers working on them?” Wu said.
Tsai Pei-hui (蔡培慧), an activist from a farming village in Nantou County, said that insufficient infrastructure and mechanism for supporting agricultural production were at the heart of the population decline in farming villages.
“Only when people can make a living on farming can farming communities really recover,” she said. “If we’re ugly, skinny and small, and [the government] keeps putting makeup on us, it won’t help — we need a well-balanced diet.”
Tsai said that the government should use the NT$200 billion budget to build basic infrastructure, production facilities and marketing channels for farmers.
Writer and farmer Wu Yin-ning (吳音寧) warned of the danger of Taiwan relying too heavily on food imports.
“Food supplies in Taiwan are only below 32 percent sufficiency right now,” she said. “Japan is working hard to increase its self-sufficiency rate from 39 percent to 40 percent. I wonder what will become of our food supply self-sufficiency rate after you spend the NT$200 billion,” she said.
Council of Agriculture officials did not address specific questions from opponents to the bill. Rather, they said that they would always stand with farmers, adding that development was important.
“Agricultural production and development are equally important for farming communities, but it would become too complicated if we dealt with production issues in the bill,” director of the council’s Soil and Water Conservation Bureau Wu Hui-lung (吳輝龍) said.
“The reason we didn’t mention agricultural production in the bill is not because we don’t care about it, but that we will deal with it separately,” he said.
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