The Council of Agriculture (COA) will increase the amount of low-interest loans offered to orchid farms by as much as 25 times to help the industry recover more quickly, an official said yesterday.
As orchids are high-value crops that require expensive equipment for farming, including greenhouses and air-conditioning, “the COA has agreed to sharply raise the amount of low-interest loans offered to orchid farmers to shorten the time needed to help the industry get back on its feet,” said Chen Wen-te (陳文德), director-general of the council’s Agriculture and Food Agency.
“Orchid greenhouses in Tainan County that were devastated by Typhoon Morakot covered 13 hectares, making up about 10 percent of the nation’s orchid plantations,” Chen said.
Losses from Typhoon Morakot have reached NT$120 million for the orchid farms in Tainan County, where most of the nation’s orchid farms are located, Chen said.
COA Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) visited Tainan County yesterday to meet orchid farmers, boost their morale and formulate post-disaster strategies.
The council has also formed a panel of experts to discuss how to restore the nation’s orchid industry.
With the amended regulation, low-interest loans issued according to the Agricultural Natural Disaster Relief Regulations (農業天然災害救助辦法) for orchid farmers will be increased from NT$1.2 million per hectare, to NT$10,000 per ping (3.3m²). As a hectare is equivalent to 3,025 ping, the change translates to a 25-fold increase from NT$397 per ping to NT$10,000.
The announcement was the latest in a series of moves by the council to help industries devastated by the typhoon.
The council announced on Sunday that to help the nation reclaim its reputation as the “Kingdom of Cultured Grouper,” it would increase loans offered to grouper farmers from NT$1 million per hectare to as much as NT$8 million.
As of yesterday, the amount of total agricultural losses sustained by the nation from damage caused by Morakot had reached NT$16 billion.
With the number continuing to climb, experts said the final figure was likely to top Typhoon Herb’s impact in 1995, which reached NT$18.5 billion.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
RSS