Page 19 - 2018 Annual Report Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan

Annual Report 2018 Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan Base-level organizations handle An information session about the “Plan for Direct applications from farmers to Payments on Farmland.” participate in the “Plan for Direct Payments on Farmland.” A meeting of experts and scholars on the expansion of the “Plan for Direct Payments on Farmland” and its future prospects. the majority of farmers showed a willingness to participate in the direct payments plan, so the plan was implemented nationwide starting in 2018. It was hoped that the direct payments system would induce farmers and operators in Specialized Rice Production and Marketing Zones to produce, under contract, high-quality rice that meets market demand, and from there change the attitude of “emphasizing quantity over quality.” In 2018 farmers applied to collect direct payments on 53,338 hectares of land, accounting for 31% of the 171,513 hectares of the approved rice-growing area. Through direct payments the COA has taken preliminary steps toward reducing the dependence of farmers on the guaranteed prices purchasing system. In 2018, a total of 137,547 hectares of land were farmed under the contract system, an increase of 3.3% compared to 2017. The main crops behind the increase were soybeans and flint corn (both being import-substitution crops) and main-point development crops with special local characteristics, thereby increasing the supply of domestically produced mixed staple crops. In addition, we conducted measures for the maintenance of the production environment (including cultivation of green manure or scenic plants and plowing of the soil) on 76,846 hectares of land, building a stable and rational cultivation model that has one crop season of cultivation and another crop season of production-environment maintenance. Looking generally at the results of implementation of these policies in 2018, besides promoting rational use of farmland, there were also benets for farmers growing high-quality rice and mixed staple crops, while the COA also guided rice farmers to switch over to incentivized crops and raise the quality of rice on the market. 1 1 7 7