Easing the laws that regulate farmland use have already made it difficult to restore agricultural production, and now the nation is facing a wave of solar power-generating equipment being set up on agricultural land.
In Pingtung County, the introduction of the solar photovoltaic industry was originally intended as a means to restore public land, partly by putting an end to land subsidence and partly by increasing farmers’ incomes. Subsidized by the government’s policy of purchasing solar power-generated energy at higher prices, the average profit from solar energy production is clearly higher than the money to be made from agricultural production, and the policy has been well-received by farmers and fishermen.
Solar power companies are paying at least NT$200,000 per hectare per year. This is substantially higher than the NT$150,000 that a farmer can earn from two rice harvests per year, or the NT$90,000 subsidy paid for fallowing the land for two consecutive harvests.
However, it entails signing a 20-year lease and involves the risks of flooding during typhoons, and salinization and corrosion of the equipment.
Many farmers are beginning to lease farmland to “green” energy companies for setting up solar panels, although this means that they would not be engaging in agricultural production as required by government regulations. This is a clear violation of the regulations that permit setting up agricultural equipment on agricultural land, although these regulations allow setting up green-energy equipment that would be used for agricultural production and set no limits to the permissible area, it must still be done in connection with agricultural operations.
Because the government lacked a comprehensive overall plan, it allowed companies to contact landowners directly, which resulted in solar photovoltaic equipment being spread all over agricultural areas, destroying the integrity of the land.
Once a large area of the nation’s agricultural land has been used for solar photovoltaic equipment in lieu of agricultural production, these businesses will continue to make profits, while taxpayers will have to fork out the money for the subsidies.
Also, the loss of farmland will make it even more difficult to persuade the younger generation to return home and work on family farms, which in turn will further aggravate the problem of the aging farming population and complicate the question of how to transform and renew the agricultural industry.
Unfair practices by energy companies have derailed the policy of agricultural co-generation and the agricultural authorities should take immediate measures to put it back on track in order to avoid another disaster.
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji (陳保基) stressed that only actual farming operations could be integrated with solar power generation, and if it was discovered that the farmland was being used only to generate green energy, then the power generation would be stopped and the equipment would be removed.
The problem is that local governments — which are on the front lines when it comes to dealing with the chaotic situation surrounding power generation on agricultural land — do not have a uniform approach to dealing with the issue, and the authorities do not act in coordination with each other.
For example, the agricultural authorities only approve operational plans, while construction and management authorities are responsible for approving construction plans. It is this lack of coordination and oversight that has caused the rampant use of agricultural land for power generation.
It is now a common occurrence in central and southern Taiwan to see power generation equipment spread over land reserved for agricultural production as companies use large areas of farmland for power generation without being stopped or having their licenses revoked by the authorities.
The case is similar to what happened when farmland was being used to construct luxurious “farmhouses” or when farmers and fishermen started digging wells to draw groundwater: The government cannot act fast enough to put an end to the practice and in the end it would be allowed to continue.
Taiwan’s agricultural land is suffering and it might be about to disappear altogether. In order to prevent the food supply being controlled by foreign governments, the central agricultural authorities must avoid repeating past mistakes.
To avoid serious consequences, the central government must take action and lay down clear, unambiguous rules, and demand that these rules are strictly implemented by local governments lest businesspeople continue to do what they are doing simply because they think that they can get away with it.
In Taiwan, where economic interests rule the roost, farmland has been cut up into small, fragmented pieces. The precondition for developing a green power industry that uses farmland for its power generation is to have a concrete plan and comprehensive measures before taking action.
Without them, Taiwanese agriculture would be destroyed.
Du Yu is chief executive officer of the Chen-Li Task Force for Agricultural Reform.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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