The bustling night markets of Taipei, where you can buy everything from papaya to fish, attract visitors year-round. However, as food prices fall as a result of farmers producing more food than can be bought, merchants and farmers are struggling. Frustration over not being able to sell their crops for profit is felt by farmers like Chang Mu-lin, a banana grower in Pingtung County.
“No matter what I grow, I end up losing money,” Chang laments.
Local producers of bread and noodles, who rely on imported products like wheat, are also struggling as production costs increase because of rising global commodity prices.
“When wheat prices began rising week by week ... it felt like I was being strangled,” said Adama Shih, a baker in Changhua County.
While Taiwan’s undernourished population remains at a modest 10 to 19 percent, such economic pressures have prompted continued efforts by the government to help farmers produce profitable harvests.
Efforts emphasize educating a new generation of farmers about organic farming, addressing water shortages that threaten crop yields and introducing programs to conserve energy during the farming process.
Many younger Taiwanese farmers are shifting to organic and sustainable methods. While Taiwan has imported organic products in the past, the government has been encouraging local food production by setting up organic zones in a number of municipalities. The government hopes that the zones will result in greater investment in agriculture. By subsidizing production through these zones, the government aims to reduce reliance on imported food products that have become more expensive over the years.
Consumers and farmers in Taiwan also face an emerging water shortage challenge — 70 percent of water in the country is used in agricultural production. Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) is promoting the use of recycled water to deal with water shortages through treatment plants, like the recently established plant in Greater Kaohsiung that treat used water with chemicals so that it can be reused. Meanwhile, the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau works with farmers to teach them about water and soil conservation.
The Agriculture Research Institute based in Greater Taichung is also working to reduce water use by breeding crops that require less water to grow.
Sub-Saharan Africa could serve as an example for future efforts to save water: Farmers in the region are already recycling water for use in agriculture. In Kenya, women are working with the UN Environment Program and the World Agroforestry Center to build tanks on their roofs that help collect and store rainwater.
This is just one of many inspiring innovations discovered by researchers from the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet project. We traveled across 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, unearthing environmentally sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty, which culminated in a comprehensive report titled State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet.
Our research findings included innovations to increase water security.
“Rain-fed areas with low agricultural yields, such as much of Africa, hold the biggest potential for getting more ‘crop per drop,’” says Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project.
Taiwan’s efforts, like the efforts of communities highlighted in the report, show that agricultural and environmental challenges create opportunities for innovative solutions to some of our most pressing environmental and development challenges.
Danielle Nierenberg is project director of the Nourishing the Planet (www.Nourishingthe-Planet.org) project. Graham Salinger is a research intern for Nourishing the Planet.
To The Honorable Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜): We would like to extend our sincerest regards to you for representing Taiwan at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday. The Taiwanese-American community was delighted to see that Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan speaker not only received an invitation to attend the event, but successfully made the trip to the US. We sincerely hope that you took this rare opportunity to share Taiwan’s achievements in freedom, democracy and economic development with delegations from other countries. In recent years, Taiwan’s economic growth and world-leading technology industry have been a source of pride for Taiwanese-Americans.
Next week, the nation is to celebrate the Lunar New Year break. Unfortunately, cold winds are a-blowing, literally and figuratively. The Central Weather Administration has warned of an approaching cold air mass, while obstinate winds of chaos eddy around the Legislative Yuan. English theologian Thomas Fuller optimistically pointed out in 1650 that “it’s always darkest before the dawn.” We could paraphrase by saying the coldest days are just before the renewed hope of spring. However, one must temper any optimism about the damage being done in the legislature by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), under
As Taiwan’s domestic political crisis deepens, the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have proposed gutting the country’s national spending, with steep cuts to the critical foreign and defense ministries. While the blue-white coalition alleges that it is merely responding to voters’ concerns about corruption and mismanagement, of which there certainly has been plenty under Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and KMT-led governments, the rationales for their proposed spending cuts lay bare the incoherent foreign policy of the KMT-led coalition. Introduced on the eve of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the KMT’s proposed budget is a terrible opening
To our readers: Due to the Lunar New Year holiday, from Sunday, Jan. 26, through Sunday, Feb. 2, the Taipei Times will have a reduced format without our regular editorials and opinion pieces. From Tuesday to Saturday the paper will not be delivered to subscribers, but will be available for purchase at convenience stores. Subscribers will receive the editions they missed once normal distribution resumes on Sunday, Feb. 2. The paper returns to its usual format on Monday, Feb. 3, when our regular editorials and opinion pieces will also be resumed.
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