Minister of Agriculture Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) yesterday urged the Legislative Yuan not to approve a hike in government purchase prices for grains, saying that past experiences show it drives down market rates, ultimately harming farmers.
Cross-party negotiations on the issue took place yesterday.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposed raising government purchase prices by NT$8 per kilogram, while the Taiwan People’s Party proposed a hike of NT$5 per kilogram.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
Chen urged lawmakers to block the proposal, saying it would harm farmers’ interests and could create a “butterfly effect” that could damage the nation’s food security by upsetting the general production and sales structure.
The proposal to hike the base price for the government purchase of rice would increase the government’s annual budget by NT$11.3 billion (US$347.6 million), whereas the ministry’s policy is estimated at NT$2 billion, he said.
While the policy would seemingly increase farmers’ income by NT$48,000 per hectare, Chen said a precedent set in 2011, when the government hiked the government buy-in price by NT$3, caused an explosion in rice planting, but also the lowest rice price in years.
If the Legislative Yuan approves the proposal, it could give foreign rice products the opening they need to establish a foothold in the Taiwanese market, Chen added.
As of last year, agriculture communities were selling rice at NT$26 to NT$29 per kilo, which has already exceeded the base government buy-in price of NT$26, he said.
The Ministry of Agriculture’s policy promoting farming cooperatives to increase farmers’ income has received support from more than 80 percent of farmers’ associations in regions where the policy was implemented, Chen said.
The policy encourages farmers who had to turn in grains to the government to join agricultural cooperatives and provide better grains, with the ministry offering NT$10,000 per extra hectare grown, he said.
The ministry expects that fields under agriculture cooperatives would reach about 10,000 hectares within three years, and the number of excellent-grade crops grown would increase to 60 percent within that time, he said.
The second part of the policy encourages farmers in certain areas to switch to planting grains, which would reduce the overproduction of rice and increase Taiwan’s self-reliance on grain production.
The ministry is offering NT$20,000 in subsidies per hectare if farmers whose fields border the high-speed railway are willing to plant grains in the first planting, while cooperatives are willing to provide an additional NT$5,000 on top of the government’s subsidies.
Chen said that the policy hopes to increase the price of dry grains by NT$3 per kilogram within three years.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS