Chiayi-Nan Farmland Fallow 02"First Rice Crop Irrigation Halted, Rice Farmers, Seedling Growers, and Contract Tillers Cry Foul Over Heavy Losses, Certain to Lose Money Next Year

Taiwan's first rice crop area totals about 170,000 hectares. The Council of Agriculture announced today (the 25th) that due to tight water conditions, 19,000 hectares in the Chiayi-Nan Plain will have irrigation halted next year, and compensation measures are being drafted. But for farmers and rice-related businesses in the Chiayi-Nan area, the first rice crop is the most important income of the year; compensation is merely a drop in the bucket. Thinking about the certain losses next year, everyone's mood is very bleak.

Chen Chi-chung Guarantees No Grain Shortage, Urges Grain Traders Not to Drive Down Rice Prices

Based on past irrigation-halt production data, the national annual rice harvest is reduced by about ten percent. The Chiayi-Nan Plain is the nation's granary. With the first rice crop left fallow next year, will there be a domestic food crisis? Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung said that since the Covid-19 pandemic this year, domestic grain, vegetables, and fruits have all been inventoried. Apart from corn and soybeans, which depend on imports, the supply of rice is safe and secure: "Grain supply stocks still stand at 890,000 metric tons, enough to supply the people for more than 7 months."

A researcher at a certain agricultural improvement station also said that seedling planting for the western first rice crop advances gradually from south to north; the north does not begin transplanting until the end of February, so there is still time to observe. Even estimating under the worst water conditions, fallow and irrigation-halt land in the west would be at most 80,000 hectares. And from past experience, after the first rice crop is left fallow, plum rain and other rains make up for it, the second rice crop still yields a harvest, and there are still public grain stocks, so there will be no domestic rice shortage.

Although there will be no rice shortage, parts of the Taoyuan-Hsinchu-Miaoli area have already seen