Protests against water rationing announced by the Council of Agriculture (COA) earlier last month to brave a nationwide drought continued yesterday as dozens of farmers and activists rallied in front of the Executive Yuan in Taipei, accusing the government of prioritizing the water demand of the industrial sector over that of farming.
The sanction is set to be imposed on 41,576 hectares of fields practicing monoculture in Greater Taoyuan, Hsinchu County, Miaoli County, Greater Taichung and the Chiayi-Nantou irrigation zones, and will be the second-largest operation in the nation’s history.
Taiwan Rural Front (TRF) secretary-general Tsai Pei-hui (蔡培慧) said the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) sells water to industrial and science parks at one-third the price of tap water, which means that these sectors would only share 10 percent of the estimated NT$3 billion (US$94.86 million) in compensation earmarked for farmland owners and farmers due to fallow fields.
Photo: CNA
In contrast, the agricultural sector would need to cover more than 50 percent of the total sum, which is to be paid using taxpayers’ money, she said.
Despite the COA saying that more than 300 farming households would receive compensation of NT$85,000 per 0.97 hectare of fallow land for green manure crops, farmers said the money was insufficient to offset their losses.
Chuang Cheng-teng, a prize-winning rice farmer in Hsinchu County’s Jhudong Township (竹東), said the authorities are allocating the majority of water in the Toucian River (頭前溪) to Hsinchu Science Park to ensure its normal operation, making farmers a “minority group.”
He said the council’s decision would have a profound impact on independent farming households that have invested millions of NT dollars in loans on farming machinery.
Tenant farmer Sun Tung-chuan (孫同權) said the council asked tenant farmers to settle an agreement with landowners on how to share the compensation, but he and his counterparts dare not ask for a share of the money because they are worried doing so would spoil their relationship with their employers.
“That means we probably will not be paid over the six-month duration that the fallow is estimated to last, maybe even longer,” he said.
Hung Hsiang (洪箱), who grows organic peanuts and sweet potatoes, said: “It is not that we are unwilling to comply [with the COA’s decision]. We would be more than willing to share the load if this were the result of a natural disaster, but the decision is humiliating and an act of bullying against farmers.”
“The government agencies should listen to public opinion rather than make decisions behind closed doors,” she added.
TRF researcher Chen Ping-hsuan (陳平軒) raised doubts about the COA’s claim that only 10 percent of overall yields in the irrigation zones would be affected, saying that the council should clarify what it based its calculations upon.
He criticized COA Minister Chen Bao-ji’s (陳保基) remarks on Monday that farmers should plant crops with higher drought tolerance during water rationing, saying that the shift is “easier said than done.”
“There are many things to consider, such as procuring farming equipment, the sourcing of seed,and how to maintain profits,” he said.
A negotiation between demonstrators and Executive Yuan, Water Resources Agency and COA officials following the protest was not productive, with officials saying that they would proceed with the water rationing as planned.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods