Page 54 - 2018 Annual Report Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan

Collective Innovation Sustainable Management Unit 2: Building Agricultural Models allowing high school students to come into contact with agriculture early on and increasing the willingness of these students to work in agriculture. We also held five publicly funded classes for university students to go into agriculture, training 176 people. The COA further encouraged students at agricultural schools to undertake “agricultural career exploration,” providing students at nine universities with practical agricultural experience, with 437 people doing internships on farms. (b) Applying guidance resources at the workplace end The COA has continued to promote guidance of the “Top 100 Young Farmers,” providing two years of individualized one- on-one guidance as well as education in land use, facilities subsidies, product certification, sales, and marketing to a total of 465 benchmark young farmers over four years. In addition, 4,138 young farmers had joined the platforms for exchanges of information among young farmers in 16 municipalities, cities, and counties. The COA also amended the “Directions of Loan for Youths Establishing Agricultural Businesses,” lowering the interest rate to 0.79%. As of the end of 2018 more than 2,000 loans totaling over NT$2.8 billion had been given out. Of these, the “Top 100 Young Farmers” could take out loans with a maximum amount of N$5 million and five years of subsidized interest payments. (c) Establishing a learning network, improving the management skills of young farmers The COA integrated the instructional resources of all of its District Agricultural Research and Extension Stations and laid out a curriculum for the “Farmers’ Academy,” providing diversified and systematic training and online learning courses. In 2018 the Academy offered 164 classes, training 5,019 people. B. Strengthening manpower guidance (a) The “Agricultural Elitist Training Project” The COA organized ve large classes offering elitist training in 2018, with 200 people attending. The COA also selected four students to go to Europe, the US, and Japan to study for their PhDs in ecological aquaculture, sustainable development of rural communities, and crop production, and sent three more people abroad to do short-term research related to seedling and crop production. In addition, through international academic exchanges, cross- disciplinary scientific research, and training in the operations of technology- based agribusinesses, the COA offered opportunities for people to get practical experience and upgrade management capabilities. In all we selected 32 people 52