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EDITORIAL: Farmers
need practical solutions
Farmers in other countries watching Taiwan’s political parties argue about
prices of agricultural products are probably really impressed with our
politicians and political parties, with their displays of concern for our
farmers and how much they can get for their produce. Local politicians have been
arguing over exactly how this or that type of persimmon should be classed,
whether the prices quoted are market prices, wholesale prices or the cost at
source, and whether it was worth selling the fruit at that price. There does not
seem to be any aspect too trivial for them to fight over.
In one of its presidential campaign fliers, designed as a calendar showing the
price of various fruits, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had the price of
persimmons at about NT$2 per jin (600g). The point was to criticize the
government’s agricultural policies and to suggest that it was indifferent to the
plight of farmers and to finding a way to help them. President Ma Ying-jeou
(馬英九) responded angrily, saying that the DPP was hurting farmers for its own
political gain and suggesting that if anything was worth such a paltry price, it
was the DPP, not the persimmons. Ma’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) joined in,
accusing the DPP of riding roughshod over farmers and harming merchants and
consumers alike.
However, the crux of the matter is not so much whether 600g of persimmons should
be priced at NT$2, or where you can get them for that price, it is the problem
of supply and demand for Taiwanese farm produce. If one is higher than the
other, it will create problems for farmers. First it was bananas, then oranges
and now persimmons. In all of these cases, the government has failed to come up
with an effective system to regulate supply and demand by collecting relevant
market data, managing gluts or shortfalls and providing assistance where needed.
Every time the market price of a given commodity slumps, farmers find themselves
unable to cover even the costs of harvesting or transporting the crop. The
result is that the fruit is left rotting on the trees.
While the government and opposition are debating the problem, neither is
offering any suggestions on how to address the core issue. They recently tried
to score points off each other by wrangling over subsidy increases for elderly
farmers, as if throwing a few more dollars the farmers’ way would miraculously
solve all their problems. Actually, the best way to help farmers out would be
for the government to help them overcome practical problems and stabilize their
incomes. However much it then increased the subsidies would be no more than
icing on the cake.
DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has proposed setting up an
agricultural fund of NT$100 billion (US$3.29 billion) to provide financial
assistance to farmers. The KMT has failed to come up with anything viable,
despite Ma’s 2008 presidential campaign promise to ensure every farmer’s annual
household income would exceed NT$1 million within his first term in office. Ma’s
promise of a rose garden has turned out quite differently from the reality of
orchards of rotting fruit, where farmers cannot sell their produce for more than
a pittance.
The DPP’s criticism of the government’s indifference and Ma’s accusations that
the DPP is harming farmers amount to little more than playing politics. The
presidential candidates should at the very least be focusing on how these
problems can be addressed. Farmers and farmers’ associations, who generally find
it difficult to get their voices heard, have a real opportunity with this
election to demand that the candidates offer some kind of practical solution.
Once the election is over, they will have missed their moment, like Cinderella
at the final stroke of midnight.
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