Q: The six-year national development plan sets the target for Taiwan's future agricultural development at "zero growth." What is the reason for this? What do you personally feel to be the most important, most urgent aspects of the six-year plan, and why?
A: Zero growth in agricultural production means allowing no further increase in production capacity, but improving quality to enhance the agricultural sector and raise farmers' incomes. So zero growth doesn't mean no development of agriculture, or that agriculture isn't important; it means widening its scope from being just a production tool to making better use of non-production functions by providing a leisure environment and taking account of ecological conservation.
The six-year plan sets out how the agricultural sector is to be enhanced to make it sounder. I think one major aspect of the task is more effective use of land. In the "Overall Adjustment in Agriculture" measure we presented for approval to the Executive Yuan last year we suggested relaxing the control and transfer of land and allowing businesses and agricultural production cooperatives to buy it to expand the area of farmland under cultivation. This is a big change, and there's consensus on this principle in the cabinet.
Another urgent priority is to introduce a registration system for agricultural production units. Farms, fisheries and animal husbandry industries all need to be registered before agricultural operations can develop along business lines. What is being produced and where, and whether pollution prevention measures have been taken, must all be checked before a registration certificate is issued. Only with a registration system in place can we compile data on agricultural produce sales, pricing and production volume.
Then we will have a handle on market demand and supply during the year, and we can advise switching production in the case of over-supply or increasing production if demand is not being met. This way we will be able to improve the present situation where oversupply gluts the market and insufficient production sends prices rocketing.
Next we want to lower agricultural production costs by a target of 20 percent. We must find ways to cut costs at every stage of the production and marketing process. Prosecuting "market cowboys" who fleece the marketing system would benefit both consumers and farmers. I think these are the main objectives.
Q: As a prominent figure in the farming world and a participant in many important policy decisions, how would you say agriculture's role in Taiwan's national development over the past four decades has altered, and what decisive changes are in the pipeline in terms of agricultural policy?
A: Government policy must be adjusted according to requirements. During the land reform phase in the Forties and Fifties our policy was to encourage increased production. Taiwan didn't produce enough rice, so we did all we could to encourage greater production per acre. We needed more of everything. But now we are suffering from overproduction of rice, pork, fruit and soon vegetables, which is a waste of resources. So we need to adjust by cutting production. Overproduction creates headaches for the government, which worries about farmers being hit by low rice prices and the burden on taxpayers of subventions and bulk purchase of grain surpluses.
But cutting back production means finding alternatives for farmers. We are encouraging turning farmland back into woodland as part of our program for a rural leisure and tourism industry and setting up woodland recreation parks. Forests prevent pollution and don't need irrigation, thereby saving water resources, and above all farmers can do better financially by catering to visitors on weekends and holidays than by sticking to growing crops.
Agriculture in Taiwan used to mean primary produce with low added value, but now we want to advance to secondary processed products as well as tertiary service products for greater added value. This is why we are advocating development of the rural tourism and leisure industry.
Agricultural policy must move with the times, but we also have a steady aim to raise farmers' incomes and shrink the income gap between the farming and non-farming sectors. Following our rent reduction and "land to the tiller" programs, we are promoting a "small landowners, big tenant farmers" drive. Encouraging farmers to rent land, enlarging the scale of operations and promoting the rural leisure industry all share the same objective. Our aims don't change, but our methods are constantly being adjusted.
Q: Doesn't adjustment give rise to various problems? For instance, since taking office you've been urging relaxation of farmland restrictions in the interests of enlarging the scale of farming operations; but this makes people worry that small farmers won't be able to compete and will suffer in consequence, while farmland will shoot up in price. What considerations is your argument based on?
A: Land speculation isn't an agricultural problem, it's a social issue, a land management issue. Land use is determined by zoning plans, and if farmland is rezoned as building or commercial land the owner makes a fortune. Often illicit businessmen use farmers as a front to buy land, then make a bomb when it's rezoned. This is a general land policy problem of which the farmland issue is only part, and the body in charge of land administration management is the Ministry of Interior.
From our point of view we can only suggest that farmland continue to be used for farming, but there's no need to be so strict over who uses it. Current laws stipulate that farmland can only be used for farming, and moreover only by farmers. Regulations barring businessmen, non-farmers and even farmers with a university education from qualifying as farmers are too strict. Our proposed relaxation would welcome anyone interested, willing and able to run a farm, so long as the land was still used principally for agricultural production.
Q: What if a businessman buys farmland for speculative purposes?
A: Anyone buying farmland has to submit an application to the agricultural authorities, and their project for market gardening or cattle rearing or whatever must be approved by a screening committee. If they deviate from the project they'll be fined as well as being compelled to sell the land back at its purchase price. So we propose that in future farmland be managed by the agricultural authorities to allow them to join with local government in follow-up checks. If farmland is to be put to non-agricultural use, the change must be carried out according to law, as with the 28,000 hectares of farmland to be rezoned by the government under the six-year plan. Change of use cannot just be left to individual farmers to do as they please, or the irrigation system would be damaged and the rural landscape would deteriorate... our whole agriculture would be in a mess.
Q: Loosening restrictions could lead to family farms being badly hit by agribusiness concerns. How might this sort of outcome be prevented?
A: This is an important problem. We want to relax the restrictions on farmland being owned only by farmers in order to promote business operations in the farming sector, but this doesn't mean allowing enterprises to buy farmland freely, and anyway each transaction must be approved by the relevant authority. These restrictions will be lifted in a planned, managed way which should not lead to too much farmland being turned over to industrial-style operations. Agribusiness will still be the exception rather than the rule.
Agribusiness farms could become focal points sharing production with nearby family farms, with centralized purchasing and processing carried out by the agribusiness farm. An outlet would then be found for farm produce as the raw material for agribusiness. We hope this satellite farm concept will allow the two to work together.
Of course competition will arise between the two, so you have to approve the number of agribusiness farms to avoid affecting farmers' interests. This will certainly be borne in mind.
Q: The farming sector has been weakened by Taiwan's industrial and commercial growth, and the drop in farm incomes has forced the government to introduce a range of assistance measures. Years on, I wonder how the Commission for Agriculture now views the success of measures such as the rice stabilization fund and fallow land subsidies?
A: Subsidies only address short-term problems. In the long term the farming sector needs to enlarge its scale of production, increase efficiency, cut costs, enhance competitiveness and adapt to a free market. But before being led by market forces it needs time to adjust, so some subsidy protection is still necessary in the short term.
Once agriculture becomes freer and adopts a more business-like style of operation, the government will assist small-scale farmers whose incomes fail to reach the ideal level by means of income support and welfare policies. But this doesn't mean subsidizing them or misusing resources.
In future things will be clearer, with free competition in agricultural production whereby prices will be fixed by supply and demand. Those unable to compete will be eliminated, while those who can will find a welcome market for their produce. In this way farmers' labor, resources and investment will be directed towards higher added value products. Meanwhile ordinary farmers working smaller, weaker family farms will receive government aid, but this will be completely divorced from their production.
Q: Unless the problems of overpopulation and aging among the farming community are solved, enlarging the scale of farm production or introducing market operations into the farming sector might remain impossible dreams. Does the Agriculture Commission have any solutions in mind?
A: Farmland is relatively cheap due to present government restrictions, so every farmer hopes his land will one day become part of some urban project and thus gain in value. Even though many farming people have other work outside the sector they are loath to relinquish their farm business, which has led to lots of "part-time" farmers.
At present farmers are switching out of the sector at a rate of something like two percent per year. Taiwan's farming population stands at some l,000,000 or 12 percent of the work-force. By the end of the six-year plan in 1996 this will have been reduced to under 10 percent. We've tabled a proposal for a farmers' superannuation scheme to ease the problem of aging farmers, but this has not yet been passed by the Executive Yuan.
Q: What is the farmers' superannuation scheme?
A: Unlike employees in industry and commerce, farmers don't go to work in an office and don't receive an annual salary. If the government can set up a system whereby they and the farmers both contribute towards a superannuation scheme, it would be like a normal pension. If farmers wanted to make a mid-career switch, this money would tide them over and help them leave the farming sector. The scheme has the advantage of encouraging a smaller and younger farming population, as well as assisting in expanding the scale of farms. Another advantage is that it would ease the burden on farmers' health insurance, by bringing in an age limit--akin to retirement age--so that elderly farmers would no longer be reliant on farmers' health insurance. This would make it into a true health insurance, instead of the old-age welfare cum health insurance it provides at the moment. A planning group chaired by a Tunghai University sociology professor has been set up to study the feasibility of such a superannuation scheme, taking into account similar schemes in Germany and Japan.
Of course the government's burden will stay much the same, with funds that now go into supporting farmers' health insurance being transferred into the superannuation scheme. But by encouraging large-scale farms and reducing the farming population, it will help improve Taiwan's agriculture.
Q: You've said that farming isn't just a productive industry, it's a whole way of life. On the verge of the 21st century, how do you think we should view agriculture?
A: Farming is to do with living things, whether crops or animals. These need time and patience to be nurtured and grow. In addition to the five cardinal relationships of normal social life people nowadays speak of a sixth group relationship, and I think we should acknowledge a seventh cardinal relationship--a harmonious relationship between man and nature.
Modern economic development has damaged the environment and threatens the surroundings in which we live. More worryingly, our children and grandchildren won't be able to learn to respect and cherish life through contact with nature, and the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources will affect mankind's continued existence. Properly managed agriculture is the best productive industry because it can both sustain the human race and maintain the natural environment. The ethical outlook of the agricultural sector is that everyone may cherish and respect nature, for if we do, it will in turn reward and nourish us.
Modern society is awash with the profit motive and our young people have little contact with reality. Farming demands endurance and stamina, and our rural communities have retained traditional values of frugality and good-neighborliness. These good traditions are all the more precious at a time like the present when industry and commerce are becoming ever more highly developed. We must not lose our agriculture, otherwise I fear many fine human traditions may vanish from the face of the earth.
[Picture Caption]
Speaking of agricultural development trends, Council of Agriculture chairman Yu Yu-hsien conveys serious ideas with personal charm.
Yu Yu-hsien believes relaxing restrictions on farmland being owned by fa rmers will help bring business operations to farming and enhance the competitiveness of agricultural produce. (photo by Diago Chiu)
(Left) Opening up marketing channels, cutting out middlemen and reducing farm production costs are major points of the six-year national development plan.
Mindful that the early bird catches the worm, Chairman Yu pays a dawn visit to the fruit and vegetable market to see what is really going on. (photo courtesy of the Council of Agriculture)
Yu Yu-hsien cannot help frowning and gesturing as he speaks of difficulties facing the farming sector.
(Right) Developing a more sophisticated agriculture has been a consistent objective over many years. (photo by Vincent Chang)
Yu Yu-hsien believes relaxing restrictions on farmland being owned by fa rmers will help bring business operations to farming and enhance the competitiveness of agricultural produce. （photo by Diago Chiu）
Mindful that the early bird catches the worm, Chairman Yu pays a dawn visit to the fruit and vegetable market to see what is really going on. （photo courtesy of the Council of Agriculture）
Yu Yu-hsien cannot help frowning and gesturing as he speaks of difficulties facing the farming sector.
（Right） Developing a more sophisticated agriculture has been a consistent objective over many years. （photo by Vincent Chang）
