Pingtung County yesterday became the latest area to report fall armyworms, increasing the number of confirmed sightings nationwide to 52, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday.
Since confirming the first sighting of the moth larvae in Miaoli County on Monday, the council has been ramping up measures to prevent their spread, as fall armyworms can wreak havoc on corn, rice, sorghum, cotton and eggplant crops, as well as cruciferous vegetables and cucumbers.
Fields affected by the larvae have been excavated and anyone who spots the pest should immediately inform the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, the council said.
Photo: Screen grab from Premier Su Tseng-chang’s Facebook page
As of yesterday, only Keelung, Hsinchu City, Nantou County, Chiayi City and Kaohsiung have not reported sightings, council data showed.
People who report sightings that are confirmed can claim a reward of NT$10,000, with the money available retroactively for reports filed after June 8, the council said on Thursday.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday promoted the reward on Facebook.
The council also announced a compensation package for farmers whose fields are excavated to counter the larvae.
Compensation packages would be NT$19,000 per fen (分, 970m2) of edible corn, NT$6,280 per fen for corn to be used as dairy cattle fodder and NT$13,000 per fen for corn to be used as fodder for other animals, it said.
The compensation rates were calculated according to the average revenue for each crop over the past three years, the council said.
Fall armyworms began affecting crops in Africa in 2016 and began spreading across Asia last year, it said.
They have affected 88 countries worldwide, it said.
As 18 Chinese provinces have been affected, the moths might have arrived in Taiwan on southwesterly airstreams, it said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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