The Organic Agriculture Promotion Act Officially Takes Effect: What Impact Does It Have on Agriculture?
The Organic Agriculture Promotion Act was promulgated on May 30 of last year (2018), and tomorrow (the 30th) is the official date of its enforcement. Regarding illegal factories occupying farmland in violation of regulations, Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung emphasized, "Farmland must absolutely be used for agriculture and must not be harmed." The amendment to the "Factory Management Act" should include a ten-year sunset deadline, and factory pollution should be jointly judged under the primary responsibility of the Council of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Administration. After the act takes effect, counseling resources will be allocated to promote organic and eco-friendly production and marketing counseling, talent cultivation, and educational outreach, along with multiple measures such as exemption from liability for pollution from neighboring fields and preferential rent and lease terms for those leasing public land.
Organic and eco-friendly cultivation area expected to increase to 15,000 hectares by 2020
Since the promotion of organic and eco-friendly farming began in 2016, by the end of April this year the organic area had reached 8,975 hectares, and the eco-friendly cultivation area was 3,237 hectares, totaling 12,194 hectares, accounting for about 1.5% of the country's total cultivated land area. Chen Chi-chung stated that next year's goal is to increase the organic and eco-friendly cultivation area to 15,000 hectares.
In the "Organic Agriculture Promotion Act," Chapter 2, "Promotion of Organic Agriculture," contains multiple key provisions for promoting organic agriculture. Under Article 4, "Competent authorities shall promote organic agriculture," in addition to encouraging organic farmers to obtain certification through third-party verification, a set of rules can also be established through farmers' associations, and after the rules are reviewed by the Agriculture and Food Agency, they can be officially recognized as "eco-friendly cultivation."
Allocate organic counseling resources, promote marketing, and publish results every four years
Under Article 5, "Organic Agriculture Promotion Plan," there is a detailed implementation framework, including allocating counseling resources and incorporating development planning, production and marketing counseling, incentive subsidies, technological research and development and talent cultivation, and organic education outreach, and publishing implementation results to the public every four years. The original incentive and subsidy measures will continue to be promoted. These include: land-based subsidies of 30,000 to 80,000 yuan per hectare for organic and eco-friendly cultivation; subsidies for verification fees, greenhouses and netting, agricultural machinery and equipment, and organic fertilizers, among others.
If polluted by a neighboring field, organic farmers will not be penalized
In addition, the issue of responsibility attribution for "neighboring field pollution" that organic agriculture often faces is also safeguarded under this act. Zeng Guoqi, head of the organic rice production and marketing group in Yuli Township, Hualien, said that organic fields and conventional neighboring fields are often opposed to each other: "We (organic fields) don't want to be sprayed with pesticides, while the neighbors (conventional fields) feel we meddle too much." This act stipulates that if farmland is polluted by a neighboring field, the farmer will not be penalized, but that batch of contaminated products must not be sold under the organic label.
Organic farmers get a 40% discount on rent, with lease terms guaranteed for 10-20 years
In order to encourage more people to engage in organic agriculture, this act also provides rental discounts and applications for promotion zones. Farmers who lease public land or land owned by state-run enterprises such as Taiwan Sugar Corporation for organic agriculture can enjoy a rent discount of 60% of the original rent, as well as lease term guarantees of no less than 10 years and no more than 20 years.
In addition, if a township or district voluntarily applies to become an "Organic Agriculture Promotion Zone," assistance and incentives will be provided on a priority basis. These include production and marketing equipment, seed preservation and breeding and seedling production, capital loans, and verification fees, among others.
School lunches and military meals to prioritize organic ingredients
Regarding domestic product marketing, Chen stated that school lunches and military meals are currently the two major marketing channels. At present, the total weekly use of organic ingredients reaches 163 tons, among which New Taipei City, Taoyuan City, Hualien County, Pingtung County, and Yilan County have all schools serving at least one meal of organic vegetables or organic rice per week, and Hsinchu County and Taipei City also plan to follow suit.
Agriculture and Food Agency Director-General Hu Chung-yi added that in terms of sales channels, there are currently 130 partner organic counters (including organic stores and mass-market outlets in various regions), expected to increase to 210 next year, and there are also 18 organic farmers' markets providing consumers with access to organic products.
Signing organic "equivalence agreements" with various countries
Regarding organic products exported abroad, Chen stated that starting this year, organic equivalence agreements will be signed with various countries one after another, and he guaranteed that all equivalence agreements for imported organic agricultural products entering Taiwan will definitely be completed by May next year. The Agriculture and Food Agency further explained that Australia, New Zealand, India, and Japan are all in the final stages of negotiation, and signing is expected to be completed successively in June and July of this year (2018). Paraguay has also proposed signing an equivalence agreement with Taiwan.
Council of Agriculture: Illegal factories on farmland that are not legalized within 10 years should be shut down
In addition to organic fields being polluted by neighboring fields, pollution from illegal factories on farmland is also an urgent issue today. Yesterday (the 29th), the consultation on the "Factory Management Act" was canceled for some reason, and it remains unclear exactly how farmland can be restored to agricultural use and how it can stop being polluted by factories.
When the Council of Agriculture, which is responsible for farmland, was asked about this issue, Chen Chi-chung stated, "Farmland must absolutely be used for agriculture, and farmland must be protected." He believes that all new factories after May 20 must be reported and demolished immediately, and if local governments do not carry out the demolition, the central government will demolish them on their behalf. In addition, after a factory obtains specific registration, if it does not meet the standards in accordance with the counseling and obtain relevant qualification documents, it should be shut down within ten years (that is, the sunset deadline that has been disputed by all sectors). As for the determination of pollution levels, Chen also stated that it should return to the primary responsibility of the Environmental Protection Administration and the Council of Agriculture.
