The Council of Agriculture continues to promote new agricultural policies to create a secure environment for farming

Yesterday (11/1), farmers' occupational accident insurance was officially launched. From today, all actual cultivators with farmers' health insurance eligibility may enroll, giving those engaged in farming greater protection. The Executive Yuan's Council of Agriculture stated that farmers' occupational accident insurance is an important part of the government's promotion of new agricultural policies to protect farmers' rights and interests. In the future, it will continue to promote various major policies under the new agriculture framework, such as rewarding organic farming, green payments for the environment, solving agricultural labor shortages, primary processing of agricultural products, and stabilizing agricultural product prices, thereby increasing the value chain of the agricultural industry and raising farmers' incomes.

The Council of Agriculture pointed out that in recent years, the average total income per main farming household has shown a trend of increasing year by year, with an average annual growth rate of 3.6%. As of the end of 2017, compared with 2014, the average total income per household increased by 138,000 yuan. As for the agricultural employed population, it has also shown an increasing trend. As of September this year, the agricultural employed population had increased by 3,000 people. Deposits at farmers' association credit departments have also increased year by year. At the end of September this year, total deposits at farmers' association credit departments across Taiwan, China increased by about 30 billion yuan compared with the same period last year. Among them, major agricultural counties and cities such as Taichung City, Tainan City, Kaohsiung City, Nantou County, Changhua County, Yunlin County, Chiayi County, and Pingtung County all showed positive growth, clearly showing that the policy goal of the new agriculture initiative to create a secure environment for farming has begun to gradually show results.

In terms of exports of major fruit products, from January to September this year, total fruit exports reached 62,000 metric tons, a growth of 26% compared with the average export volume for the same period over the past 5 years. Among them, pineapple, sugar apple, mango, citrus fruits, and pomelo performed most prominently, with total export volumes of 30,826 metric tons, 9,144 metric tons, 5,201 metric tons, 4,997 metric tons, and 3,006 metric tons, respectively, growing by 15.3%, 87.8%, 9.2%, 86.3%, and 29.1% compared with the same period last year. In terms of imports of sensitive crops, from January to September this year, garlic, red beans, and peanuts were imported at 9,523 metric tons, 2,710 metric tons, and 6,318 metric tons, respectively, decreasing by 57.4%, 51.6%, and 37.1% compared with the same period last year. In the coming months, these crops will enter their main production period, and the Council of Agriculture is confident that it can maintain prices at a reasonable level and ensure farmers' returns.