Yilan's farmland readjustment pushes wildly for a thousand hectares, four times the national total for five years! Friendly smallholders: destroying shallow-mountain terraces goes against the satoyama spirit

A wave of farmland readjustment has recently sprung up in Yilan. Following the farmland readjustment projects in Yuanshan's Neicheng and Shangde areas, Toucheng's Fucheng and Ercheng have also been included in the scope of farmland readjustment. Although the county government has temporarily put the Toucheng farmland readjustment on hold because the number of consenting landowners did not reach the legally required majority, the three farmland readjustment projects promoted in Yilan this year total as much as 965 hectares (note), four times the five-year total of 253 hectares in the most recent statistics from the Ministry of the Interior.

Fruit farmer Li Baolian, who once launched the Protect Yilan workshop and advocates keeping farmland for farming, said, "Farmland that has not been readjusted may have been at a disadvantage in the past, but in this era it may be an advantage." Li Baolian suggested that agricultural authorities should keep pace with the times, recognize the multiple values of the rural landscape as intangible cultural heritage, respect the history between people and the land, and re-examine the necessity of farmland readjustment.

Comparison of farmland before readjustment (above) and after (below)

Farmland readjustment is concentrated in plain areas; readjusting up the mountains defies common sense

According to land administration regulations, farmland readjustment refers to: "1. Merging and redistributing fragmented and scattered land so that farmland is neat and square, facilitating mechanical farming and management. 2. Installing field farm roads and irrigation and drainage facilities so that each plot directly adjoins a road and has direct irrigation and drainage, effectively improving the agricultural production environment and raising farming efficiency."

Farmland readjustment peaked from 1960 to 1980 and was prioritized in large plain areas, so farmland readjustment was mostly concentrated in the Yunlin-Chiayi-Tainan Plain. Since the 1990s, with social changes, almost all large areas of farmland have already been readjusted. Today's farmland readjustment cases in Yilan are mostly on fragmented gentle slopes at the foot of mountains, raising questions about their necessity.

Yang Wenquan, a PhD in urban and rural planning and former agriculture department head, pointed out that "near mountains and beside water, with large differences in elevation, are all areas where readjustment is difficult under the current farmland readjustment model." One cannot help but ask: "Since fragmented land on steep slopes near water sources is unsuitable for farmland readjustment, why still insist on pushing it through?"

Kang Fangming, convener of the Yilan Xixi Alliance, pointed out that once farmland is readjusted, it easily crosses the threshold for farmhouses, and farmland prices immediately double. Farmland readjustment areas mostly belong to buffer zones around towns and high mountains, with landscape views. In recent years, land prices in the Jiaoxi Shihliujie readjustment area have risen, prompting other townships to follow suit one after another.

Older farmers: quite a few speculators from Taipei come to look at the land; the better the landscape, the higher the price

The reporter went to the Jiaoxi Shihliujie farmland readjustment area to investigate the causes of this wave of farmland readjustment fever. Ministry of the Interior data show that the Jiaoxi Shihliujie section completed in 2015 (77 hectares) and the Yuanshan Dahu section completed in 014 (92 hectares) are the two most recent farmland readjustment cases in Yilan.

"Lin Congxian (former Yilan County magistrate) restricted farmhouses! That keeps our farmland prices from rising! Can't sell! Truly hateful!" "Logically, as long as farmhouses don't get in others' way, we should be allowed to freely decide to build them." The reporter asked older farmers chatting over tea in front of Tiannong Temple, and they cursed the regulatory measures restricting farmhouse qualifications one after another, saying they keep farmland transaction volume from picking up.

A visit found that the Shihliujie readjustment area is located on a quiet gentle slope beside Jiaoxi urban area, overlooking Jiaoxi urban area, with a good environment and quite good views. Visually, rather than a farmland readjustment area, it looks more like a new suburban town. Moreover, in the shallow-mountain area, crested serpent eagles can be seen from time to time soaring and circling in the sky from the hillside forest.

Within the readjustment area, several plots of farmland are posted for sale, and a few scattered farmhouses have been built. As opponents say, after readjustment one gets straight roads and square land, but because the slope is steep, the height difference between corner roads and farmland exceeds two meters, and once nighttime lighting is insufficient, it is also very dangerous.