A group of farmers protested the government's low purchase price for rice crops at the Legislative Yuan and the Council of Agriculture yesterday.
About 150 farmers, most of them older than 50, gathered in front of the Legislative Yuan in the morning while the legislature was holding a public hearing on the price of the crops.
"Two kilos of rice is selling for less than a packet of cigarettes. Half a kilo is not worth a marinated egg," the farmers shouted outside the Legislative Yuan.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
The protest was organized by the Chaiyi Farmers Fighting For Existence Self-help Association. Situated on the fertile Chianan Plain, or "Taiwan's rice barn." Chaiyi County is a major agricultural region.
The government has been purchasing the crops and encouraging the farmers to stop cultivating rice at the same time.
They have asked farmers to grow something else, or switch to other jobs.
The farmers, however, do not appreciate the government's policy of terminating cultivation and insisted that the government should subsidize them with more money.
The farmers yesterday appealed to the government to purchase their rice crops at a price related to the growing cost, which they said amounted to NT$23 a kilogram. The government is paying them NT$16.6 per kilogram.
"With the current subsidies farmers would lose more than NT$26,000 per acre, instead of earning any money from their work," said Chan Chao-li (詹朝立), the organizer of a planned march for farmers and fishermen scheduled for Nov. 23.
"The current policy to encourage farmers to stop cultivation would just lead to a dead end. We are only asking the government to purchase the crops at the growing cost to allow the farmers to survive," said Yang Tsung-yao (楊宗耀), chairman of the self-help association.
Meanwhile, the public hearing taking place inside the Legislative Yuan was equally heated.
The farmers' representatives argued with Council of Agriculture officials, shouting and pounding on their desks.
The representatives accused the administration of failing to understand the farmers' difficult situation.
A threat to vote the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) out of power next year earned a round of applause from the farmers' representatives.
Council of Agriculture Vice Chairman Tai Cheng-yao (
The farmers also went to the Council of Agriculture's offices at noon to further voice their appeals.
Later in the afternoon the council issued a statement saying that it would not consider increasing the subsidy, since this would be in violation of WTO regulations, which stipulate that after joining the WTO a country must cut its domestic agricultural support by 20 percent.
The subsidy for all agricultural products also has to be reduced every year.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
Minister of Labor Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) yesterday apologized after the suicide of a civil servant earlier this month and announced that a supervisor accused of workplace bullying would be demoted. On Nov. 4, a 39-year-old information analyst at the Workforce Development Agency’s (WDA) northern branch, which covers greater Taipei and Keelung, as well as Yilan, Lienchiang and Kinmen counties, was found dead in their office. WDA northern branch director Hsieh Yi-jung (謝宜容), who has been accused of involvement in workplace bullying, would be demoted to a nonsupervisory position, Ho told a news conference in Taipei. WDA Director-General Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良) said he would
RSS