Taichung City Focuses on "New Agriculture": Mayor Lin Chia-lung Aims to Build a Sales Base

The Taichung City Government convened the second Economic Development Advisory Committee meeting on the 4th, focusing on the issue of "new agriculture" and inviting numerous experts and scholars from industry, government, academia, and research institutions to attend. Mayor Lin Chia-lung stated that the city government is echoing the central government's 5+N new agriculture policy, having trained more than 100 young farmers, subsidizing farmers in purchasing modern agricultural machinery and equipment, and promoting agricultural fund loans. It will also use the Flora Expo to continuously take stock of various flowers, agricultural products, exhibition halls, and land, so that in the "post-Flora Expo" period, it can build a production and sales base for Taiwan agricultural products belonging to central Taiwan.

Mayor Lin Chia-lung stated that in order to promote agricultural innovation and inheritance, Taichung, in coordination with the central government's 5+N new agriculture policy, proposed the "New Five Agriculture Policy," promoting the five major directions of "farmers," "agriculture," "rural areas," "agricultural products," and "processed agricultural products" through innovation, employment, distribution, and sustainability.

In addition, Mayor Lin Chia-lung also pointed out that Taichung has a large lychee production volume. To assist farmers with marketing, Taichung lychees are targeted mainly for export. Last year, Upper Silver Technology Chairman Cho Yung-tsai, together with a National Chung Hsing University team, developed "color-preservation and water-loss-prevention technology," which can extend the lychee preservation period to 30 days and strengthen the competitiveness of export logistics. The city government will also recently hold a press conference on lychee exports to Japan, hoping to successfully enter the Japanese market with Taichung lychees.

Chen Chi-chung, Deputy Minister of the Council of Agriculture, affirmed that the city government has responded to the spirit of new agriculture, not only promoting agricultural insurance policies to reduce the impact of natural disasters on farmers' livelihoods, but also that Taichung's promotion of "using local ingredients in school lunches" and "green environment payments for land" have been quite successful. To protect farmers' rights and interests, the Council of Agriculture will promote "farmers' occupational accident insurance," and next year also plans to launch a "farmers' retirement system," which will refer to Taichung's successful experience and further promote it nationwide.