Rare mid-heading irrigation cutoff threatens to destroy rice seedlings; farmers angrily criticize compensation as a favor

A typhoon is a disaster, but no one expected that no typhoon would also be a disaster. This year is the first drought year without typhoons since 1964. Because water conditions are tight, the Council of Agriculture announced that irrigation will soon be cut off in the Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli areas, and Minister Chen Chi-chung offered compensation of more than NT$120,000 per hectare, hoping to calm farmers' anger. But the irrigation cutoff came only after the rice had already headed, and even whether to plow it under was inconsistent. Farmers helplessly asked heaven: "Why must we be sacrificed again?"

Council of Agriculture: Farmers will not lose out because of the irrigation cutoff; compensation funds will reach households within ten days

Chen Chi-chung said in an interview at the Legislative Yuan today that because rainfall from June to October this year was less than 40% of normal, agricultural water reservoirs such as Shimen, Techi and Yongheshan had insufficient water, so the government announced an irrigation cutoff for 19,000 hectares of farmland in the Miaoli, Hsinchu and Taoyuan areas.

He then explained that irrigation districts nationwide cover 320,000 hectares. After close coordination with the Water Resources Agency, the area subject to the irrigation cutoff was limited to 19,000 hectares, of which 13,000 hectares are paddy fields, while the other 6,000 hectares grow miscellaneous grains, vegetables and other crops.

Chen Chi-chung said the Council of Agriculture had been in intensive discussions with the Water Resources Agency since August and had made possible advance deployments so that second-crop rice south of Taichung could be harvested on schedule. But heaven did not bring rainfall to areas north of Miaoli, so compensation was approved by multiplying farm household income by 1.05 and then adding farmers' production costs. He said: "It will definitely exceed NT$120,000 per hectare, confirming that farmers will not suffer any loss because of the irrigation cutoff."

Before the interview ended, Chen Chi-chung emphasized again: "We will give all farmers the most favorable form of compensation. The amount will be announced publicly at noon today. Starting tomorrow, applications can be made within 10 days at the farmland irrigation management office workstations in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli, and the compensation amount will be remitted to farmers' accounts as soon as possible."

However, when "Upstream and Downstream" asked local irrigation units, all said they had not received official documents, saying "the news runs faster than the announcement." At least before the deadline, how compensation would be handled tomorrow, who could receive it, and exactly how much the compensation would be all remained uncertain.

Officials do not understand farming people: "Plowing it under is like asking us to kill our own children"

Moreover, can farmers' losses really be compensated with money?

Chen Yen-ching, a recipient of the Shennong Award, has second-crop rice in Taoyuan that has already headed. He said he does not care about the compensation amount, but if farmers are asked to plow the crop under as green manure, that is too unreasonable. "That is the rice we cultivated through hard work, like our own children. Is plowing it under not asking us to kill our own children?" He said helplessly that officials sitting in offices have never understood the feelings of farming people.

The government's harm to farmers has made the title of Shennong Award recipient ironic. Chen Yen-ching's "Dahe Brown Rice" and "Dahe Fragrant Rice" are grown in the farmland now facing the irrigation cutoff. Before more follow-up procedures for the irrigation cutoff are announced, he can only humbly ask the government, "After the irrigation cutoff, can you let us find water sources ourselves, and not plow it under?"

Farmers' ancestors built reservoirs, yet when water is short agriculture is sacrificed; furious shouts: destroying rice seedlings will bring down thunder from heaven

When Taiwan faced a decade-scale drought in 2014, "Upstream and Downstream" once interviewed Zhubei farmer Tian Shou-hsi. Six years later, when interviewing him on the same issue, his first response was: "Sacrificing agriculture again." He said farmers of his father's generation had all contributed money to help build Shimen Reservoir, because the reservoir's purpose was irrigation. Now, however,