Mon, Jan 19, 2015 page3

• INTERVIEW: Tackling water shortages in the agricultural sector

  The government’s policy of encouraging farmers to let agricultural land lie fallow to cope with water shortages has provoked opposition from “Rice Bomber” Yang Ju-men, who said in a recent interview with ‘Liberty Times’ (the sister paper of the ‘Taipei Times’) staff reporter Liu Li-jen that he would rather plant soy beans on a hectare of land and offer them a way of survival, adding that only by ensuring consumers’ health and thereby receiving support for their efforts would the farmers and the farming villages be able to have more power to determine their own affairs

  • By Liu Li-jen / Staff reporter
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  Liberty Times: Due to water shortages the government has implemented a policy that encourages farmers to let agricultural land lie fallow. Is this policy appropriate?

  Yang Ju-men (楊儒門): According to Article 18 of the Water Act (水利法), water used for families and public services should take priority, followed by agricultural use and industrial use.

  However, whenever there is a call to limit water supply, the government always targets the agricultural sector, leaving the industrial sector unhindered. This is a clear case of the government violating its own laws.

  

  “Rice Bomber” Yang Ju-men, convener of the 248 Farmers’ Market, stands by a stall at one of the market’s locations in Taipei on Jan. 2.

  Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times

  When we see that the daily average amount of water used for the nation’s sixth naphtha cracker is equivalent to the amount of water used by 1 million people in Changhua County in one day, we have to ask: Is the government going to take care of the Formosa Plastics Group [who owns the plant] or are they going to take care of the people of Changhua County?

  Usually, water limitation affect public and civilian water use if limiting agricultural water use proves to be inadequate; is it logical or legal for the government to do so?

  Environmentally speaking, while critics often say that agricultural activities use too much water and produce little, the water used by farms actually seeps into the ground and helps replenish underground water sources. The evaporation of water near the fields also take away heat, creating moderate microclimate regulation in the area, the basis of why some say it is cooler when living near farming fields.

  The ridges separating the rows of crops can also function as a detention basin in the event of floods. With water comes life, and farms — when managed properly — can create biodiversity in the area. Simply speaking, farms are significant in terms of the environment.

  LT: As someone who is concerned with agricultural policies, do you think it is possible for agriculture and industry to coexist?

  Yang: I think that agriculture and industry do not necessarily have to be antagonistic and both have room for betterment. On the agricultural side, irrigation systems could use water more efficiently and prevent water being drained away unused via zoned planting. In terms of industry, recycling water after industrial use could be improved. Both sides have to strike a balance, to use limited resources to its greatest effect.

  The industries are rootless; if the factory closes down; the owner simply dismisses the workers and walks away. Agriculture — or farmers — cannot afford to do this. The land is the farmer’s, and the farmer cannot just leave it behind. We need to think about how both sectors can advance together and enable everyone to live decent lives, to create a win-win situation.

  LT: You grew up in a farming village. What kind of a place is a farming village to you?

  Yang: A farming village has a social utility; in the event of an economic downturn, you might hear everyone from farming villages to urban centers saying that if they lose their jobs they would simply go back home and start farming.

  A farming village is a sponge, able to absorb the jobless until they can return to the urban centers to work when the economy warms.

  For a farming village, every extra person means an extra mouth to feed; there is no great impact. The jobless can return home to a farming village, but their neighbors are either their friends or their family. They look after each other; help the one who has lost their job. Without the farming villages, there would be many more social problems.

  The farming villages are also a factor of national security. Without sufficient food supplies, the nation would inevitably fall in a war. The villages are also important in terms of food safety regulations; without local production and relying on foreign imports, how do we know that the imported foods meet our standards? People should ingest food which they can witness in the process of its planting and support local agriculture.

  LT: The government stresses that it offers subsidies when implementing the policy of having farmers lay fallow their lands. Have these subsidies actually helped the farmers?

  Yang: The government is offering NT$85,000 (US$2,700) per hectare of farmland forced to lay fallow. While the subsidies are intended for the individuals doing the farming, the farmers often say they are not entitled to the subsidies because they have not planted anything and give the subsidies to the landowners. The actual reason is that farmers are afraid of not being able to continue to rent the piece of land if they actually keep the subsidy money.

  Another often-seen situation is that the farmland lies fallow and becomes overgrown with weeds or other plants, or even treated as a dumpsite, causing the individuals actually doing the farm work to spend more time and effort to make the land arable again.

  In some circumstances the farmers turn in the subsidies to the landowners to cover the rent for the first season while they make the land arable again, using their labor as payment for the land’s rent in the second term.

  No matter the method, the farmers are not the beneficiaries of the subsidies.

  LT: What do you think would be the solution to the difficulties of the farming villages, and what future do you envision for them?

  Yang: Foreign governments all have their subsidy policies for their agricultural sectors. Take the US for example. If overhead cost stands at US$100, the government subsidizes US$70; in Taiwan, the farmers have to shoulder the entirety of the US$100. There are almost no subsidies for farmers unless there has been a natural disaster. Compared with other trades, which have subsidies of sorts, the agricultural industry in Taiwan lacks sufficient support to become competitive in the international market.

  In the international market, only the more wealthy nations are able to export agricultural products, such as the US, Canada, France and Germany. The exports of these nations are backed by their respective governments, causing a sever imbalance in trade when Taiwanese seek to export their agricultural products.

  I am of the opinion that the government must establish a healthy system of production and sales. It is easier to establish the production part; as long as the produces could be sold, the farmers would keep planting.

  However, for sales there must be a market that is amenable to the sales of fresh produce. For example, if I were to start a shop selling soybean milk, red bean soup and other deserts, and transformed my agricultural produce into practical commodities to be sold on the market, it would encourage farmers growing ingredients used in those products to continue growing and improving the quality of those ingredients.

  The government’s promotion of crops that use less water is a good idea, but they have not actually considered how farmers are going to sell those products, which leads to farmers being unable to sell their crops.

  This is the reason why I have entered into cooperation with other farmers and urged them to plant soybeans. Just last year 30 tonnes of soy beans were produced, and I helped them transform the soy beans in to soybean milk, tofu and dou hua (豆花). If it can be guaranteed that produce will be processed and sold, farmers will be more willing to plant other products.

  LT: You have been busy with small-scale agricultural economic activities these past years. Have you any actual results to show for your efforts?

  Yang: I provided assistance to farmers in Dongshih Township (東石) in Chiayi County and Erlun Township (二崙) in Yunlin County in transitioning their crops to soybeans, black beans, pearl barley and wheat, and just last year I started to process the soybeans reaped from cooperating farmers’ fields into soybean milk for sale.

  There is a chance that this method could succeed. Imported organic soybeans are priced at NT$50 per kilogram, genetically modified soybeans are priced at NT$20 per kilogram and normal soybeans are priced at NT$100 per kilogram.

  I am buying the soybeans from farmers at NT$130 per kilogram, which gives them a much better price. So much so that they keep asking me if I am being serious with the offer. I think this is another route that our agricultural sector should consider taking in the future.

  It does not matter how good your product is if there is no market for it, and farmers hope that within one year to one-and-a-half years they are able to provide distribution channels for their goods for the next two decades. My own project, the 248 Farmers’ Market (248農學市集) that was founded 7 years ago, has recently started its eighth branch.

  I am not seeking to make money; I only want to find more distribution channels and help the farmers.

  While my friends and I seek to boost the quality of our products, the biggest difficulty is the reluctance of land owners to officially sign rent contracts, making it difficult to apply for governmental approval for the products to be considered organic, despite the fact that our partners do not use any pesticides.

  Although the government once planned to implement the “Farming Land Bank” where the government would be the guarantor for the land to be rented to the farmer, the policy was placed in limbo because most civilians sought to lessen their workload.

  Many consumers feel that organic food is more expensive, but I am of the opinion that the more people plant organic food, the cheaper organic food will become.

  The consumers’ concept of food also needs to see changes. There are many who have too much food in their refrigerators and they are forced to throw away food that they cannot eat. If they change their notions on buying food — buying only what they need — then buying organic food would not actually place too heavy an economic burden on them.

  Translated by Jake Chung
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