Because the latest figures from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) show farmers are making little money, while the farming population is ageing, academics say that agriculture can become sustainable only when farmers could earn a reasonable income.
DGBAS figures from 2009 — the statistics for last year are not ready yet — show the average annual income for a farming household dropped to the second-lowest level in 14 years and was only a little higher than in 2002, when Taiwan entered the WTO. In addition, DGBAS figures also show that, in 20 years, the number of farmers above the age of 65 has doubled.
In 2009, the average annual farming household income was NT$872,000 (US$30,000), but only less than NT$220,000 — or 22 percent — of that income came from farming, while non-farming income accounted for about 78 percent — approximately NT$676,000 — of the total annual average income for farming families.
Compared with the average farming household income in 2006, which was about NT$941,000, farming households have suffered a 10 percent drop in income.
Farming families in 2006 earned about 76 percent of the average annual income earned by non--farming families, which was 5 percent more than in 2009. Along with the drop in income, there was also a significant decline in the farming population — by as much as about 50 percent — in the past 20 years.
In 1999, there were 776,000 farmers in Taiwan, but the number dropped by 30 percent to 543,000 in 2009. In 1990, about 4.9 percent of farmers were above 65 years of age, but the number grew to 17 percent in 2009, while the percentage of farmers under the age of 35 dropped from 22.5 percent to 10.4 percent.
Taiwan Rural Front spokeswoman Tsai Pei-hui (蔡培慧), who is an associate professor at Shih Hsin University’s Graduate Institute for Social Transformation Studies, said that not being able to make a reasonable income is the main cause behind the decline in the population of young farmers.
“I can’t even remember how many times the price for a noodle soup has gone up, but the price of scallion has remained the same for a long time,” Tsai said.
She suggested that, if the government could take NT$50 billon out of the Farming Village Renewal Fund — which is about a quarter of the fund — to pay an NT$20,000 monthly stipend for two years for young people to learn -farming skills, there could be at least 20,000 new farmers.
“In Europe and in Japan, governments are making a lot of effort to save agriculture,” National Taiwan University agricultural economics professor Woo Rhung-jieh (吳榮杰) said. “In Japan, farming families even make more money than the average non-farming families.”
He said after becoming WTO members, many countries support their agricultural sectors with “transfer payments,” such as the “environmental subsidy” in Germany, since the market mechanism may not reflect the true value of the agricultural sector.
Agricultural development researcher Tu Yu (杜宇) said: “The government should make raising farmers’ income from farming a policy objective, so that farmers don’t have to do other jobs to sustain themselves.”
He went on to say that there should be some visionary policies for farmers, not only compensation.
A Taipei veterinarian is urging pet owners to avoid using insecticides around their homes, as their ingredients can be toxic to pets. Commercial-grade insecticides contain pyrethroids — organic compounds similar to natural pyrethrins, pesticides produced by flowers such as chrysanthemums — in quantities that are harmless to humans, but potentially fatal to cats and dogs, Asian Veterinary Specialist Referral Center veterinarian Chua Man-ling (蔡曼琳) said. Even in small quantities, pyrethroids are hazardous to cats, as they lack the metabolic enzymes needed to process them, Chua said. Cockroach sprays and ant traps are especially dangerous to pets as they contain boric acid, she
People should avoid eating too many zongzi (粽子, glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves), as consuming several in one meal could cause indigestion, bloating, gastric acid reflux, heartburn and other stomach ailments, a doctor said on Saturday. Zongzi is a traditional delicacy for the Dragon Boat Festival, which was on Thursday. Citing a recent case as an example, Cathay General Hospital gastroenterology department head Chu Yu-ming (朱淯銘) said that a 58-year-old taxi driver surnamed Hsiao (蕭) ate meals at irregular hours due to his work and has been taking diabetes medicine for three years. Hsiao recently bought a bag of zongzi and ate
While stereotypically considered a household pest that simply will not die, Hung Ting-yang’s (洪鼎揚) experience with Archimandrita tesselata, commonly called the peppered roach, might change a person’s mind. The peppered roach originates in South America, is omnivorous and, as it is capable of growing to 7cm to 9cm long, is a giant compared with other roaches, which have an average length of about 4cm. The peppered roach goes through six separate chrysalis stages and takes nine months to reach full maturity. Mature roaches have wings, but cannot fly and can only glide. They have an average lifespan of three years. As his
The EU’s list of safe nations to which it would reopen borders next week does not include Taiwan, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said the list has not been finalized and some EU countries have highlighted the importance of “reciprocity.” The provisional list comprises Algeria, Andorra, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, San Marino, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay and the Vatican, the New York Times reported on Friday. The EU said it would add China, considered one of the “acceptable countries,” if it also opens its borders to EU travelers, the newspaper reported. Backed by
RSS