The current insurance and welfare pension regime for elderly farmers could undermine agricultural productivity and development of the sector, researchers told the National Science Council yesterday.
Funded by the council’s Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Chang Hung-hao (張宏浩), an associate professor at National Taiwan University’s department of agronomy, studied the impact of the farmers’ insurance and elderly farmers’ welfare pension on farming households.
“Raising elderly farmers’ monthly payments from the welfare pension has always been a political issue during presidential elections in past years,” Chang said. “However, what impact the welfare pension has on the productivity structure or welfare of farm households is seldom investigated.”
Using the latest national statistical data on the agriculture, forestry, fishing and livestock industries from 2005 released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Chang looked into how the insurance policy affects land use and labor time of farming households, whether the welfare pension affects the inheritance of farmland and how different social insurance policies for the elderly affect the behavior of retired farmers.
According to the data from 2005, the nation had 703,278 farming households, while the average age of a farmer was 62, Chang said, adding that compared with Western nations, Taiwan’s agricultural labor structure showed a serious aging problem.
His research showed that farmers on the insurance policy regime tended to increase the amount of time they spent farming and the size of farm land they tilled, which shows an unwillingness to allow land to go fallow.
In addition, farmers on the welfare pension were less willing to hand over their farmland to younger generations, Chang said, adding that compared with other social insurance policies, farmers on the insurance plan showed a higher level of willingness to continue working after the retirement age of 65.
Chang said the current farmers’ insurance policy requires farmers to own a certain amount of land and to work the land over a certain period of time each year, to remain qualified to receive insurance, however the qualification requirement may cause a decrease in productivity by aging farmers and rigid farmland ownership.
Farmers’ insurance policies in some European countries include a requirement to relinquish land ownership upon retirement to receive monthly welfare payments, Chang said, adding that instead of only providing cash through the current mechanism, the government could think about providing additional incentives for elderly farmers to transfer farmland rights to younger farmers.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to