Lawmakers yesterday passed a set of controversial amendments to the Agricultural Development Law, despite attempts at a boycott by New Party lawmakers on the floor of the legislature and a protest by farmers outside the building.
And in what is seen as a blatant attempt to win votes in the upcoming presidential election, Vice President Lien Chan (
Hsu Wen-fu (
PHOTO: YEH JEN-HAO, LIBERTY TIMES
"It isn't really what farmers want. It's what politicians want. The KMT is trying to buy votes from farmers," said Hsu.
Amendments to the Agricultural Development Law, dubbed "Taiwan's second land reform bill in 50 years," has sparked fierce debate among officials, scholars, and lawmakers, particularly after two different versions of the proposed amendments appeared.
The first version was the brainchild of former Council of Agriculture chairman Peng Tso-kwei (
Peng's proposed amendments called for restrictions on building on farmland, saying such construction should be carried out in "communities," while the KMT legislative caucus' version favored allowing the individual construction of buildings.
The amendments passed yesterday also allow non-farmers to buy farmland, allow construction of farmhouses on newly-purchased farmland and set the minimum size for farmland division at 0.25 hectares.
The amendments also give power to local governments to decide whether to allow farmers without buildings on their land to apply to build either in collective villages or on individual plots, as well as to determine the qualifications for applicants and approve plans for construction.
The law stipulates that the government should establish a NT$150 billion agricultural development fund, with the money coming from a tax levied on the value added to land by its rezoning for an alternative use. Should the collected revenue be insufficient, the government has to make up the shortfall.
National Taiwan University agricultural economics professor Jerry Geaun (
"Once non-farmers are allowed to buy farmland, prices are expected to rise. This will drive up the cost of agricultural production and reduce Taiwan's competitiveness and that's not a good sign," he said.
Geaun also called for more rather than fewer regulations on farmland use.
"Since the law allows the rezoning of farmland based on use, we need other agricultural-related laws to help manage the farmland; the eight other agricultural-related bills waiting for passage by the legislature are not yet comprehensive enough."
Geaun said that the law itself is actually a political by-product.
"It's not what the majority of farmers want; it's actually a compromise produced by minority interest groups," he said.
Despite Hsu's claims that the amendments were politically motivated, he still approved of their passage.
"Previously only farmers could buy and sell farmland, but now non-farmers can also step in, and the government will control the release of farmland based on the total amount of land available."
Hsu sees the new measures as allowing the development of larger scale agricultural businesses, which will result in a lowering of production costs.
Hsu added that he is not worried about the change of use of farmland.
"Once the use of the farmland changes from agricultural to industrial, the price of the land will go up, and when that happens, the land owner has to pay taxes on the value added, and that's where the NT$150 billion agricultural development fund will come from," he said.
Meanwhile, Lien also proposed establishing a national agricultural bank; creating a NT$150 billion agricultural development fund after Taiwan gains entry to the WTO; and setting up another NT$100 billion relief fund to offset possible damage to farmers' livelihoods as a result of increased agricultural imports after WTO accession.
In his speech, Lien outlined 11 other measures concerning the promotion of agricultural, fisheries and forestry development.
These included improving technology in the agricultural sector, better coordination of agricultural research, improving the agricultural banking system and greater liberalization of the buying and selling of agricultural land.
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
LEAP FORWARD: The new tanks are ‘decades more advanced than’ the army’s current fleet and would enable it to compete with China’s tanks, a source said A shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived at the Port of Taipei early yesterday. The vehicles are the first batch of 108 tanks and other items that then-US president Donald Trump announced for Taiwan in 2019. The Ministry of National Defense at the time allocated NT$40.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase. To accommodate the arrival of the tanks, the port suspended the use of all terminals and storage area machinery from 6pm last night until 7am this morning. The tanks are expected to be deployed at the army’s training
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS