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Real agricultural
reform is needed
By Lee Wu-chung §õªZ©¾
Agriculture has once again been in the news. After battling over bananas and
papayas, the pan-blue and pan-green political parties are now focusing debate on
increases in subsidies for elderly farmers. The Democratic Progressive Party¡¦s (DPP)
legislative caucus has proposed increasing subsidies for elderly farmers from
NT$6,000 to NT$7,000 and have listed this as a priority bill for their next
legislative session.
While the ruling party has stated that it needs to consider its finances, it
will probably support the bill because of election pressure. It is sad that each
time an increase in subsidies is proposed, it seems to coincide with legislative
or presidential elections. Many are saying the rise in subsidies is little more
than electioneering.
On average, farmers earn an annual income of NT$873,000. Not only is this lower
than the national average of NT$1.128 million, but the amount they receive from
farming itself doesn¡¦t even account for NT$200,000 of the total. In recent
years, farmers have been hit by increasing initial outlay and living costs, all
going up at a rate much higher than the increased revenue from farming.
Considering the long-term contribution to food security and the preservation of
the environment that farming makes, it is correct and necessary to increase
subsidies, when appropriate, for our elderly farmers. However, these subsidies
lack a wealth exclusion clause and there are currently many ¡§farmers¡¨ driving
around in luxury automobiles and living in mansions.
Apart from owning land and sitting around waiting for its designation for use to
change so they can sell it off or use it for other things, such people also
enjoy benefits like farmer¡¦s insurance, subsidies for elderly farmers, crop
subsidies and tax exemptions, and this is not in line with the principle of
social justice.
The government should clearly define what constitutes elderly farmer status to
identify who is eligible. These subsidies now account for more than 70 percent
of total expenditure on agriculture and have been in place for a long time, and
so have become a huge financial burden. Farmland utilization rates are low, with
large areas of farmland being left idle and neglected. Spending on agricultural
infrastructure has been discouraged and there is a lack of funds available for
scientific research and development. It is high time something was done about
this.
These are not new problems. If politicians were genuinely concerned about the
livelihood of elderly farmers, they would have implemented agricultural reforms
some time ago, not just in the run-up to an election. As it is, they
conveniently come up with these proposals to keep the farmers happy, only to
drop them again after the election, and even give out the most important
executive positions in the industry as a political pat on the back to others, or
simply for the sake of gaining some political capital for themselves.
In an age where politics trumps competence, agricultural policies can change
overnight. This not only leaves farmers disoriented, it also makes businesses
avoid agriculture, making it impossible to upgrade our agricultural system.
After all, even the best policies need people to implement them to deliver on
their mandates. Especially now, with elections just around the corner, the
majority of agricultural policy has been aimed at achieving short-term gains.
Subsidy increases are constantly being proposed, restrictions on who is eligible
for subsidies are being relaxed in an attempt to win over voters and the
government has shown that it lacks the courage to carry out reform.
After relying on government protection for so long, our farmers have lost their
ability to respond to change and cope on their own. This is the real source of
Taiwan¡¦s agricultural problems.
The main aim of agricultural policies is increasing the income of farmers and
making rural economies more prosperous. Both presidential candidates have stated
that Taiwan¡¦s agricultural sector has to become more streamlined and move toward
higher-value-based activities.
However, no concrete plans have been put in place yet. If the agricultural
sector is to be upgraded and become more competitive internationally, constant
innovations in industrial science and technology are necessary. However, our
current agricultural testing and research institutions are getting old, and
research is moving in the wrong direction.
We also have a problem with confidentiality surrounding the findings on
agricultural science, techniques and crop varieties, with a great deal of
Taiwan¡¦s technology and knowledge of new crop varieties being leaked to China.
Many agricultural researchers are leaving their jobs and the achievements of
agricultural science and technology are being exaggerated. The contribution
agricultural science and technology is making toward agriculture is decreasing
and agricultural science and technology are no longer made freely available to
farmers.
These are but a few of the problems facing Taiwan¡¦s agricultural industry, yet
nobody has said anything about how these problems should be solved. Another
important issue is how to go about getting the younger generation to work on the
land, because this would inject new energy into rural areas.
All the talk about how to best set up more complete production and marketing
mechanisms and steady the price of agricultural produce, how to best promote
low-carbon, green industries, how to carry out sustainable management for
agriculture and how to increase exports of agricultural products to increase the
income of farmers is just that: a bunch of talk. This makes people feel the
government is ruling the nation with little more than slogans.
As the structure of our economy has changed, the gap between rural communities
and cities has increased. Relying on agricultural subsidies alone is not enough
to meet the goal of closing the gap in incomes between the countryside and
cities. Instead, this will create an even bigger money pit.
Farmers want to be able to survive off their crops and live with dignity. I
sincerely hope that political hacks stop manipulating agricultural policy for
their own political interests.
Lee Wu-chung is a professor of agricultural economics.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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