The current insurance and welfare pension regime for elderly farmers could undermine agricultural productivity and development of the sector, researchers told the National Science Council yesterday.
Funded by the council’s Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Chang Hung-hao (張宏浩), an associate professor at National Taiwan University’s department of agronomy, studied the impact of the farmers’ insurance and elderly farmers’ welfare pension on farming households.
“Raising elderly farmers’ monthly payments from the welfare pension has always been a political issue during presidential elections in past years,” Chang said. “However, what impact the welfare pension has on the productivity structure or welfare of farm households is seldom investigated.”
Using the latest national statistical data on the agriculture, forestry, fishing and livestock industries from 2005 released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Chang looked into how the insurance policy affects land use and labor time of farming households, whether the welfare pension affects the inheritance of farmland and how different social insurance policies for the elderly affect the behavior of retired farmers.
According to the data from 2005, the nation had 703,278 farming households, while the average age of a farmer was 62, Chang said, adding that compared with Western nations, Taiwan’s agricultural labor structure showed a serious aging problem.
His research showed that farmers on the insurance policy regime tended to increase the amount of time they spent farming and the size of farm land they tilled, which shows an unwillingness to allow land to go fallow.
In addition, farmers on the welfare pension were less willing to hand over their farmland to younger generations, Chang said, adding that compared with other social insurance policies, farmers on the insurance plan showed a higher level of willingness to continue working after the retirement age of 65.
Chang said the current farmers’ insurance policy requires farmers to own a certain amount of land and to work the land over a certain period of time each year, to remain qualified to receive insurance, however the qualification requirement may cause a decrease in productivity by aging farmers and rigid farmland ownership.
Farmers’ insurance policies in some European countries include a requirement to relinquish land ownership upon retirement to receive monthly welfare payments, Chang said, adding that instead of only providing cash through the current mechanism, the government could think about providing additional incentives for elderly farmers to transfer farmland rights to younger farmers.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
RSS