Page 80 - 2018 Annual Report Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan

Collective Dining The Language of Food Unit 3: Building Food Security and Agriproduct Safety Systems greenhouses, these connecting clamps accelerated construction speed by 30% and lowered costs by 20%. They were also tested for their resistance to electro- chemical erosion. These new connecting clamps improved the wind-resistance of greenhouses and prolonged their service life. TARI also designed a self-propelled automatic irrigation gantry, which can measure the height of plants as well as do customized watering of potting medium at a specified height. As for technology for facilities cultivation of green onion, TARI chose to use knitted net (which has excellent wind resistance) draped over a simple aluminum tube frame; tests showed this can reduce losses from typhoons by 30- 40%. In addition, because of the absence of pollinators in facilities cultivation of bitter melon, we used honeybee pollination to replace articial (hand) pollination, and the use of technology for feeding bees with bee bread produced a net income 2.8 times that of articial pollination, and 1.8 times that of ordinary bee pollination. Innovative greenhouse connecting clamps developed by the COA (two cross-clamps and a T-shaped connecting clamp). (5) Promoting the Big Granary Project The main mixed staple crops (MSCs) in Taiwan include peanuts, sweet potatoes, corn for human consumption, and Chinese pearl barley. In 2018, 77,418 hectares of land were planted with mixed staple crops, with production value of NT$10.7 billion and production volume of about 500,000 metric tons. Nearly 30,000 farm households were involved in MSC cultivation. Production areas are concentrated in Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung. In 2018 Taiwan produced a total of about 8.14 million metric tons (MT) of MSCs, including 4.25 million MT of corn, 2.63 million MT of soybean, and 1.26 million MT of wheat. Domestic production of MSCs amounted to only 6% of total imports of MSCs. Through the “Big Granary Project,” the COA guided the construction of a substitute (or outsourced) cultivation system, promoted the introduction into group production zones of (i) contract production and contract sales and (ii) agribusiness management approaches, linked up farms with processing industries, and did marketing and promotional activities. By the end of 2018 we had guided the establishment of 47 domestic MSC group production zones covering 4,280 hectares. We had also set up ten product handling and processing centers, subsidized the purchase of 341 pieces 78