An increasing number of Taiwanese have shown an interest in recent months in the Council of Agriculture’s Wandervogel program, which aims to inject new life into the nation’s aging agricultural work force and encourage young people to go into farming, the council said.
Although registration for this year’s Wandervogel classes has yet to begin, the council has received nearly twice as many telephone inquiries about the program compared with the same period last year, said Ni Pao-jen (倪葆真), the official in charge of Wandervogel.
“You don’t make as much money as many others do, but working on the land offers a stable income in such a bleak economic environment,” Ni said. “That is definitely a contributing factor to the program’s popularity.”
Many of the people interested in signing up for the program are also lured by the attraction of living a simple, idyllic life on a farm, officials said.
As an example, Ni cited a message posted on the council’s Web site by a self-proclaimed “poor engineer” who wanted to sign up for the program.
In the message, the engineer said: “I have been asked to take unpaid leave recently, making me worry about what my future holds. I would rather get back to nature.”
Since the program was launched three years ago to provide hands-on farming experience for people aged between 18 and 35, 3,856 people have attended the camps, 1,136 of whom have advanced to the training phase, while 448 have gone on to work in the field, a recently released report showed.
While there are no statistics on how many of the program’s participants were unemployed, experts said that agriculture could act as a safety net and a stabilizer when the economy is in dire straits.
“Everybody has to eat. The agricultural sector has historically been largely recession-proof and it can provide good returns if you are earnest in your undertaking,” said Lee Shu-jen (李淑珍), an associate professor at Taipei Municipal University of Education.
Because of the growing interest, the council plans to hold more than 50 camps this year to allow another 1,000 people get a taste of making a living from farming.
Trainees usually first attend a three-day camp to experience life on a farm, then they are trained in practical farming techniques before deciding whether they want to go into the field.
Those who opt to make the transition are provided with guidance and other support services by the council.
As much as agriculture may serve as a buffer for the unemployed, the program has also been a haven for the highly educated. Around 80 percent of the 448 people who have gone into agriculture after graduating from the council’s program, such as 27-year-old Hsieh Hau-cheng, hold a university or college degree.
A year ago, Hsieh was working as a highly paid information technology engineer, earning an annual salary of NT$1 million, but he quit his job because he was overloaded with work. After Hsieh joined the program, he spent a year preparing for the transition and then invested NT$4 million in a strawberry farm in Taoyuan County.
By late last year, Hsieh’s strawberry farm was generating an average NT$100,000 profit per month, to the envy of his former colleagues in the IT sector, most of whom have been forced to take unpaid leave by their companies.
Hsieh’s success was not entirely a surprise, as young people who specialize in information technology seem to have a better chance of success in the agricultural sector, said Chiu Chun-lien (邱春連), head of the promotion department at the Hualien City Farmers’ Association.
“This is because they are keen on experimenting and are therefore interested in developing new methods that reduce the use of insecticides and fertilizers without compromising crop quality, finding more innovative approaches to sales and marketing, and applying the creative use of computer technology to farming,” Chiu said.
Others are entering farming without going through the council’s program.
Lee Tien-cheng, 55, who worked as a tour guide for more than 20 years and has traveled to more than 80 countries, gave up his job three years ago and turned his attention to farming the 1,952m-high mountain area of Jianshih Township (尖石), Hsinchu County.
“Previously, my monthly salary was about NT$100,000. Now, I only need about NT$5,000 a month to meet my needs, “ said Lee, who grows rapeseed sprouts. “I am not at all attached to urban life.”
To help the many novices succeed, however, training and government guidance are required, experts said.
The government should target the unemployed and provide funds to help them get into agriculture, as well as allocate subsidies to schools and military units to purchase agricultural produce, said Lee Shu-jen, stressing the importance of promoting organic farming not only as a way to create jobs, but also as a means of preventing water pollution and conserving water.
The program has triggered wide debate on how the government should implement and manage such a project, with some people opposed to the idea entirely.
Lin Yi-jung, a former high-tech sector professional who moved into farming two years ago, said that given the current oversupply of almost all locally-grown fruit and vegetables, he would not encourage the unemployed to go into farming unless the government cuts back on agricultural imports.
Before recruiting people into the agricultural sector, the government should also first determine what they should grow and how, said Wu Tung-jye (吳東傑), chairman of the Green Formosa Front, a grassroots civic group dedicated to environmental protection.
The government should also encourage people to find a niche market and help them address matters such as marketing, packaging, transportation and distribution. It should approach the program from the wider perspective of overall agricultural reform, Wu said.
Regardless of the challenges, the trend toward more people venturing into farming appears to be strong, academics and other experts said.
Shaw Jei-fu (蕭介夫), president of National Chung Hsing University, which began as an agricultural college 90 years ago, expressed optimism at a campus job fair that graduates from its College of Agriculture this June would not have problems landing jobs, while heads of many other universities voiced concern that their graduates would be affected in some way by the worst economic slump in decades.
“Unpopular agriculture could be mounting a comeback,” Shaw said.
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