Page 24 - 2019 Annual Report Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan

Cultivation: Strolling through the fields Unit Two: Enhancing Farmers’Welfare
A press conference to explain the policy of subsidies for small agricultural machinery, with a display of such machines on-site.
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COA Minister Chen Chi-chung announced an expansion of the subsidy program for large and small agricultural machinery.
(7) Natural disaster relief for agriculture
In 2019 Taiwan was impacted by natural disasters and adverse weather which caused losses to agriculture, including: continuous rain in January, low temperatures in January, drought and other problems in January and February, continuous rain in March, low temperatures in March, high temperatures in February and March, weather fronts in March, continuous rain in April and May, torrential rain on May 17, torrential rain on June 11, low temperatures in early May, a tornado on July 1, torrential rain on July 2, strong winds on July 3, Typhoon Danas, torrential rain on August 12, Typhoon Lekima, Typhoon Bailu, high temperatures in August and September, Typhoon Mitag, strong winds in December, low temperatures in December, and continuous rain in December. On the basis of the "Agricultural Natural Disasters Relief Regulations" the COA arranged (i) NT$2.169 billion in cash relief for 71,481 households and (ii) low-interest loans totaling NT$388 million for 299 households. These were immediately distributed following a determination that the affected households qualified for this relief, and they had a great impact in assisting farmers to resume operations and rebuild. In addition, to assist local public officials to determine the extent of disaster losses and to upgrade the efficiency of disaster surveys, the COA’s Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, taking advantage of the mobility, speed, and high resolution of unmanned aerial
vehicles (drones) and the fact that they are not affected by clouds, developed technology for agricultural natural disaster surveys and the use of images to determine losses to crops. In 2019 this technology was used to survey and evaluate paddy rice damage, enabling farmers to resume cultivation sooner.
To improve the preparations and response of farmers to coming natural disasters, the COA worked with the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction and the Central Weather Bureau to set up 131 agricultural weather stations and 62 weather forecasting systems in production areas for important crops across Taiwan. These provide more precise and detailed weather information. We also created a crop natural disaster warning App, to provide relevant prevention and response information before, during, and after natural disasters, thereby strengthening the independent disaster prevention and response capabilities of farmers. In addition, based on a specialized weather model to analyze forecasts, the COA produced and broadcast daily agricultural weather videos. In the event of a special weather event (such as a typhoon), the COA added special weather videos. These videos were not only used as reference for policy decisions, they were also broadcast on a variety of channels including the COA’s official Facebook page, Youtube, the Virtual Museum of Taiwan Agriculture, and the electronic bulletin boards at farmers’ and fishermen’s associations.