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FEATURE: Farmers bemoan bad
government policy
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff Reporter
Chang Mu-lin, a farmer in
Pingtung County, cuts down the trees on his plantation on Friday. Saying that
“No matter what I grow, I end up losing money,” Chang has decided to let his
banana plantation stay fallow.
Photo: Yeh Yung-teng, Taipei Times
Amid controversies surrounding falling
prices for farm produce and other related issues, farmers and researchers have
been vocal in their criticism of the government and politicians for not
providing any concrete assistance to farmers, with some describing the talks,
promises and other measures as “superficial.”
In recent months, government officials and lawmakers from the Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have been at
loggerheads over agricultural policy.
The DPP first panned the KMT government for not providing enough drying
facilities for harvested rice and for the low rice purchase price. President Ma
Ying-jeou (馬英九) responded by raising the government purchase price for rice by
NT$3 per kilogram, and accused DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of opposing an
increase in the farmers’ pension from NT$5,000 (US$173) per month to NT$6,000
during her term as vice premier.
Earlier this month, the government also came under fire over extremely low
prices for papayas, bananas and garlic, and Ma responded with a flurry of visits
to farming villages “to hear what farmers have to say,” the president said.
“I am honestly, quite disgusted by this wars of words politicians are engaging
in over farm produce prices,” Rural Meinong and Field Learning Association
research specialist Wen Chung-liang (溫仲良) told the Taipei Times during an
interview in Meinong District (美濃), Greater Kaohsiung, last week.
“Politicians always bring up these issues ahead of elections and the government
responds with some seemingly beneficial policy changes, but in fact, nothing
fundamental has been changed at all.”
Meinong is one of the major production regions for rice, bananas and papayas,
which are all at the heart of the recent controversy over prices for farm
produce.
“I’m not saying that the government and the farmers’ associations are doing a
bad job, but they’re just not doing anything concrete to help, despite the
resources they have at hand,” Wen said.
A fruit grower surnamed Hsiao (蕭) in Meinong Town shared Wen’s view.
“Farmers’ associations can do a lot of things,” Hsiao said. “For example, a key
reason why high--altitude tea grown in the mountains in Taiwan is so popular is
because farmers’ associations in Nantou County ran such successful promotional
and marketing campaigns.”
Farmers’ associations are semi-official organizations created in farming
communities around the country to help farmers grow, process, sell and market
their produce.
However, Hsiao said most associations are relatively inactive and positions in
these organizations have become “thank-you gifts” offered by elected politicians
to their friends or those who help them in elections campaigns.
Hsiao recalls being angered by a speech he heard Vice President Vincent Siew
(蕭萬長) give, calling on farmers to improve themselves and become more
competitive.
“Most farmers work seven a days a week in the fields and they are all experts in
growing produce, but how do you expect them to have extra time to become more
competitive?” Hsiao said. “If we farmers are on our own, what do we need the
government or the farmers’ associations for?”
Seventh-generation tea farmer Chou Kuo-ping (周國平), who also owns a small
family-run tea--processing factory in Sansia District (三峽), New Taipei City
(新北市), feels the same way.
He said that Sansia is probably the only area that grows Biluochun (碧螺春) tea.
“I’m certain that you have heard of high-altitude Oolong tea and green tea from
Japan, but have you heard of Biluochun from Sansia?” Chou asked.
“We sell our Biluochun green tea mostly to the Japanese market because of its
excellent quality, but it’s a pity that not many people in Taiwan have heard of
it,” Chou said. “Because the farmers’ association never helped us to promote our
tea.”
Noting that exploitation of wholesalers and middlemen is the core problem in
farmers’ suffering, Wen said that the issue could be ameliorated if the
government would take appropriate action — other than adding a few New Taiwan
dollars to the purchase price or raising the farmers’ pension by NT$1,000.
“We all know that middlemen try to maximize their own profits by paying as
little as possible to farmers and many people have tried to solve the problem,
but it is not that easy because farmers also need these people to sell their
produce,” Wen said.
He explained that the best quality produce is usually sent to major markets —
mostly cities like Taipei or Kaohsiung — to be sold by auction through farmers’
associations, while lower quality produce is sold at local open-air markets
through middlemen.
Because of the lower quality and the fact that farmers want to sell their
produce when it’s fresh, middlemen take advantage of the situation to demand
excessive price cuts, Wen said.
“Everyone knows about this situation, but it’s impossible to eliminate the
problem because farmers need to sell as much of their produce as possible to
make an adequate income,” he said. “Take papaya for example, only about 60
percent to 70 percent of papayas from a plot of land are good enough to be sold
at auction through farmers’ association, the remaining 30 percent to 40 percent
have to be sold to middlemen.”
Although the middlemen cannot be banned, Wen said that the government could
still do something to help if it really want to.
“After purchasing produce from farmers, the middlemen sell it to wholesalers and
sometimes wholesalers keep the produce they buy at lower prices in cold storage
and sell it when the supply becomes scarce and prices rise,” he said. “Of
course, individual farmers cannot afford to have large cold storage like
wholesalers, but what about the government and the farmers’ associations?”
Wen added that governments in many countries have enhanced and expedited
processes to export -agricultural produces, but nothing similar has been adopted
in Taiwan
“Tulips harvested in the Netherlands can be sold in New York the next day, and
kiwi fruit from New Zealand can be exported to target markets very quickly,
because their governments have implemented an expedited inspection, quarantine,
customs and transportation system for specific export farm produce,” he said.
“Sadly, farmers and merchants are entirely on their own when exporting farm
produce though some fruits are quite popular overseas.”
In Taiwan the inspection and quarantine of exported farm produce is outsourced
by the government to private institutions, which sometimes calls into question
the credibility of the inspection in question. Even then it can still take up to
three days to complete the exporting process, he added.
“And everyone knows that freshness is the most important thing when you’re
selling fruit,” Wen said.
While there are many variables in farming, such as the climate, Wen as with many
other farmers believe that things would improve considerably if the government
really cared about the agricultural sector and was not interested in good
sound-bites at election time.
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