Agricultural losses caused by the cold front enveloping the nation yesterday reached NT$132.15 million (US$3.93 million), according to Council of Agriculture estimates.
In an unprecedented move, the council said it would award cash grants to eligible municipalities and counties before the areas have undertaken the previously required damage assessments.
Tainan suffered the largest agricultural losses, estimated at NT$81.38 million, followed by Miaoli County with losses of NT$35.40 million and Hsinchu County with NT$4.38 million, the council said, citing figures valid as of 5pm yesterday.
Photo: CNA
All Tainan’s losses were in the farmed aquaculture sector, with products hardest hit including milkfish, groupers and orient clams.
Agricultural product losses were estimated at NT$50.74 million, with 688 hectares of crops affected, the council said.
Strawberries were the hardest-hit crop, suffering losses of NT$22.02 million, followed by oranges, ginger, wax apples and grafted pears, the council said.
Photo: CNA
“The low temperatures have caused disasters for farmers across the nation, which is very rare, but only 10 cities and counties have reported losses to the council today. The losses are expected to rise considerably in the next few days,” Council of Agriculture Secretary-General Tai Yu-yen (戴玉燕) said.
There is a considerable time lag between the arrival of a cold front and the occurrence of an agricultural disaster, Tai said, calling on local governments to keep tabs on the current situation.
“Vegetable and fruit prices are expected to rise due to the cold weather, but the rise should be moderate, as winter is the harvest season for vegetables, so the supply should remain stable. No heavy losses have been reported in the major vegetable supplier counties of Changhua, Yunlin and Chiayi — ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday,” she said.
Although the aquaculture sector suffered the biggest losses, it would have a limited impact on the supply of aquatic products, because the nation’s fisherman can catch more wild fish to make up for the shortage in farmed products, she said.
The council said it would announce the municipalities eligible for cash grants and low interest rate loans as early as yesterday, so the relief should arrive before the Lunar New Year holiday, Tai said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater