The nation is about 31 percent food self-sufficient and can last for three months in any national security threat, Council of Agriculture Minister Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) said yesterday during a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
The council hopes to elevate the figure to 40 percent by 2020 through its Great Granary Program, Lin said in response to questions from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲).
Due to changes to dietary habits, domestic supply of rice has exceeded demand, Lin said, adding that the council is working to adjust the production levels of different produce.
Under the program, the council is seeking to increase grain production by 300,000 tonnes and the production area by 30,000 hectares before 2020, while helping rice farmers grow other produce such as sweet potatoes, soybean, buckwheat and corn, he said.
Legislators on the Economics Committee raised concerns about the council’s ability to protect farmland.
The nation should have about 740,000 to 810,000 hectares of farmland to guarantee food supplies, but only 684,819 hectares are usable, council data from August showed.
New Power Party Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) asked Lin to clarify his position on Taiwan Sugar Corp’s (Taisugar) land use, considering that half of the utility’s property is quality farmland.
“Quality farmland should be reserved for agricultural use, especially that of Taisugar,” Lin said.
The council supports the Environmental Protection Administration’s proposal that development on Taisugar land larger than 1 hectare should undergo an environmental impact assessment, he added.
However, some of Taisugar’s land is in urban areas and not necessarily quality farmland, Lin said, adding that the council would respect other authorities’ decisions regarding development.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Li-shan (張麗善) criticized the council’s failure to tackle banana overproduction, as there are still 70,000 tonnes of bananas to be sold, despite the government’s purchase of 1,200 tonnes.
The production area of bananas was severely damaged by typhoons last year, but production this year has grown 20 percent, causing prices to plummet.
Lin said that the council would help farmers access information through the council’s production and marketing platform, so they would know next year’s price to adjust production.
Cabbage and dragon fruit are also likely to be overproduced in the fourth quarter, he said, adding that the council is closely observing their production.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS