Cabbage registration system guarantees 6 yuan per kilogram, with a subsidy of 100,000 per hectare when production surges

Cabbage has seen an imbalance between production and sales for years running, and last November the auction price even fell below two or three yuan per kilogram. Although the average price has now recovered to more than ten yuan per kilogram, future production and sales problems remain a hidden concern. In response, the Council of Agriculture has introduced a cabbage planting registration system. As long as farmers register their planting area, they can obtain income protection for up to two hectares, with processing and export businesses matched to purchase at 6 yuan per kilogram. The last resort is ploughing under the crop, with the government guaranteeing a subsidy of 100,000 per hectare. Implementation is expected to begin in mid-to-late February.

In the past, the Agriculture and Food Agency estimated domestic cabbage production area, with demand of 180 hectares per ten-day period, and used this as the standard for issuing overproduction warnings. But the planting registration system introduced this time does not set a registration cap. If the ten-day period exceeds 180 hectares, farmers can still continue to register, and their income for two hectares is guaranteed. Does this deepen farmers' willingness to enter and plant? Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung stressed that when farmers come to register, they will be notified of the current overplanting information. "Farmers will assess it themselves. If it is not worthwhile, they will not continue planting."

Seedling nurseries: In the past, the Agriculture and Food Agency grasped only about 50% of seedling data; the Council of Agriculture: it can grasp 70-80%

Zhang Qincai, head of Futian Seedling Farm, estimates that in the past the seedling data grasped by the Agriculture and Food Agency was "about 50% or so." Smaller seedling nurseries lack enough manpower or dedicated staff responsible for registration, so omissions are unavoidable, and in addition many household-run operations grow their own seedlings in quantities that are difficult to estimate. As for the Council of Agriculture's emphasis that it will work closely with seedling businesses in the future to grasp seedling orders, Zhang said, "In the future it will be possible to grasp more than 50%, but results cannot be seen immediately; it takes time." The Agriculture and Food Agency has already strengthened information guidance so that businesses can get up to speed with registration information more quickly.

Chen Chi-chung stated that the government grasps about 75% to 80% of seedling data, because some are not produced through seedling businesses, but the Council of Agriculture's data will be revised again, and it will estimate the remaining 20% that cannot be grasped, to estimate the planting area for each ten-day period.

Chen Chi-chung: More crop production registration systems will be introduced one after another to precisely grasp vegetable volumes

Chen Chi-chung stressed that the cabbage registration income system was not set by the Council of Agriculture itself, but formed from the bottom up, gathering the opinions of the directors-general of various farmers' associations. The production registration system not only provides farmers with income protection; "behind the registration system is the purpose of producing export varieties, promoting production and marketing traceability, and raising the quality of the production end."

Chen said the planting registration system hopes farmers will not concentrate their planting at the same time, and the Council of Agriculture is also cooperating with seedling businesses, issuing warning notices one month before farmers plant. If farmers continue to register and plant, processing and export matching will follow to ensure a purchase price of 6 yuan per kilogram. If the decline in cabbage prices still cannot be resolved, stronger measures will be taken to maintain market prices, in the hope that production and sales imbalances will no longer be seen.

"Cabbage is only the first item. After the New Year, more crop production registration systems will be proposed." Chen Chi-chung pointed out that the resolution of the national agricultural conference is the hope that in the future all farmers receiving subsidies will come to register, and policy will move in this direction. Only through production registration can it be precisely understood what crops farmers grow, what they need, and what problems they have, and only then will Taiwan's agricultural problems gradually decrease.