Page 31 - 2019 Annual Report Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan

rational use and conservation of farmland in a planned way, these programs also benefit farmers who cultivate high quality paddy rice and mixed staple crops, and have the effect of guiding rice farmers to switch over to incentivized crops and upgrade the quality of rice sold on the open market.
To maintain and conserve Taiwan’s limited agricultural production environment resources, manifest the multi-functional values of farmland, and conform to the conclusion of the 6th National Agriculture Congress to "expand the recipients of direct payments on farmland by incorporating land not included in the base year of the program that is suitable for agricultural production," the COA included an "environment payment" in the process of adjusting the crop industrial structure through "direct payments on farmland." Consequently, starting in 2020 we plan to provide an "agricultural environment basic payment" for agricultural and pasture land in specially designated agricultural zones and general agricultural zones in non-urban areas and to support users of land for staple crop production. The COA thereby hopes to put into practice "agricultural uses for arable land" and highlight the government’s multiple policy objectives for farmland maintenance. At the same time this policy will be helpful to the future designation of "agricultural development zones" in the National Spatial Plan.
2. Conservation of Agricultural Resources
(1) Inventorying of agricultural and farmland resources and value-added usage of the data
A. In order to maintain a firm grasp of the situation with regard to use of farmland, the COA, after announcing the results of its "national inventory of agricultural and farmland resources" in September of 2017, thereafter constructed the "searchable map of the results of the national agricultural
B.
and farmland resources survey" (https:// map.coa.gov.tw), making data such as total farmland resources, location, and the status of farmland usage available to the public for reference. Also, in order to improve the updating of data over time, in 2018 we established a mechanism for updating the agricultural and farmland inventory, and developed uploading, downloading, consolidation, and comparison functions for the data. At the same time we strengthened the in-situ inspection system to help local governments gather inventory data and perform statistical operations with it in order to accelerate surveying tasks and facilitate access to farmland usage data by the general public.
In coordination with the announcement and implementation of the National Spatial Plan (NSP) on April 30 of 2018, the COA provided the data from the agricultural and farmland inventory to local governments (municipalities, cities, and counties) to serve as the basis for demarcating agricultural development zones under the NSP and adopting guidance strategies for agricultural industries. In addition, with respect to land that can potentially be made available for agricultural use, the COA undertook locational analysis of the production environment conditions to provide a basis for determining the suitability of the land for use, with the aim of optimizing use of farmland resources. Also, with respect to 14,000 hectares of farmland which are suspected of being used for factories, we have already provided a detailed list to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) for surveying illegal factories nationwide, so that the MOEA will have a basis for overall planning and determining a program for dealing with the problem. Moreover, in order to maintain the safety of the agricultural production environment, the COA used the inventory data to undertake demarcation of areas for agricultural industrial clusters, and provided
Annual Report 2019 Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan
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