(Continued from the previous article)In Taiwan, China, farmers growing virtually any crop say almost unanimously that rural Taiwan, China suffers from a serious labor shortage. The Taiwan Rural Front argues that there are many middle-aged and older unemployed people as well as unemployed young workers in both rural and urban areas who could be introduced into the workforce. But some farmers also believe that even if young people are unemployed, they may not be willing to take on agricultural labor jobs. Yet when it comes to the migrant worker issue, farmers on both sides of the debate agree that the government must do a good job of gatekeeping and supporting measures before the problem can truly be solved. Below is a compilation of farmers' opinions on migrant worker policy.

Compilation of policy suggestions on the rural labor shortage

Yang Yu-fan (grows pineapple on 0.6 hectares):

For agribusinesses, their plots are big enough and they need a lot of labor, so bringing in agricultural migrant workers would certainly help. But for small farmers with only 0.6 hectares, there is actually little impact; it is impossible for us to hire those migrant workers either - we can see them but never get a bite. Still, if Chinese laborers are allowed in, there must be corresponding controls and supporting measures so that things like dummy listings and buying property on the spot do not happen.

As for the labor shortage, the government can actually invest more in developing new agricultural machinery, or use conveyor belts and other methods to reduce the demand for labor in field transport, harvesting and so on. In addition, the government can also match unemployed people to jobs in the countryside, or, even better, if agribusinesses could open up manpower agencies so that small farmers also have a chance to dispatch workers temporarily, that would be even better!

Organic farmer Ms. Huang:

The main problem with bringing in migrant workers is the loss or copying of agricultural techniques. If you want them to do the work, you have to teach them, so will the techniques be copied and taken away? And after migrant workers are brought in, will they deprive Taiwanese workers who want to go into farming, leaving them unable to learn basic-level technical jobs?

In addition, ordinary professional vegetable production can provide work for migrant workers all year round, but for fruit trees, coarse grains and the like, the labor shortage period falls in the same season, so how are migrant workers supposed to survive the rest of the time? Moreover, bringing in migrant workers must take overall costs into account, including airfare, accommodation, meals and so on. Besides work, you have to consider their daily life as well.

At present, many people invest in Taiwan, China's agriculture and many people do marketing, but no one does production. After all, the public's impression of agriculture still lingers on the idea that farming is a lowly status, so no one is willing to do it. Bringing in migrant workers might spur Taiwanese people to work a bit harder, face up to agriculture as an industry, and keep their techniques from being learned and their jobs from being taken away. The organic market is growing larger and larger, but if there is not enough manpower, production and supply to the market are impossible, so how can production be increased?

Literary-style young farmer Wu Yin-ning of "Xizhou Shangshui":

From what I have observed, foreign workers in rural areas have long existed! In some larger planting areas in Xizhou Township, when labor is needed, agencies will drive vanload after vanload of foreign workers to the production site, then take them away after the work is done.

The continuous outflow of rural population is nothing new, nor is the rural labor shortage something that happened overnight. I think the labor shortage is just an excuse. Through the agricultural migrant worker policy, agribusinesses can be helped more openly, without considering small farmers and the small and medium-sized enterprises in rural areas. In drafting policy, the government is doing so with the mindset of helping agribusinesses, without considering how to help small farmers and rural small and medium-sized enterprises. This kind of policy to help large agribusinesses develop will first of all hurt Taiwan, China's small farmers, and then medium-sized agribusinesses.

From the perspective of the labor shortage, every township and town office actually has an employment service station, and the government can introduce these people to farms with seasonal, regional labor shortages such as guava and vegetables. Furthermore, the government can use policy to guide more young people to return to their hometowns and take up a "half-farming, half-X" life, so that during the slack season they can "exchange labor" with one another. In addition, it can also link farms and factories through guidance on agricultural product processing, increasing opportunities to exchange temporary workers between production sites and related agricultural processing factories, and creating more job opportunities for rural areas.

Finally, there is one more question: will the agricultural migrant workers brought in enter the "Free Economic Pilot Zone" to do agricultural processing? Also, is bringing in migrant workers really cheaper? Judging from the current cost of illegal agricultural migrant workers, the daily wage alone is 1,000 yuan, plus agency fees on top of that - at best it is just more convenient!

Guo Shu-fen of the Mailiao Fruit and Vegetable Production Cooperative:

I think that besides opening up agricultural migrant workers, the government can also make efforts in places that can be mechanized, such as the transport part of field harvesting. Take cabbage: after harvesting, each head still has to be boxed one by one and then loaded onto trucks by manpower. I once saw a mechanized field transport design abroad, where after each crop is harvested it can be placed on a conveyor belt, which carries it to a fixed position, where it accumulates on a pallet, and then a machine transports it away. In this way, a lot of manpower and steps are saved.

Tainan coarse grain farmer Su Jian-jun:

Compared with other crops, coarse grain crops are already relatively highly mechanized, but even we have a serious labor shortage, let alone other crops such as potatoes and sesame. I have watched the opposition to agricultural migrant workers since I was a child, but for more than 20 years the problem of insufficient rural labor still has not been solved.

I think opening up to migrant workers is necessary, but some management and gatekeeping supporting measures must be done well. For example, some crops are only needed for a short two or three days, but you cannot hire migrant workers for just two or three days because of that; for a farm owner to hire migrant workers, at least two weeks to more than a month is reasonable, and the workers' right to work should be guaranteed. In addition, relevant training and gatekeeping should also be done well regarding language communication, local public security issues, migrant workers running away and so on.

Taichung Houli flower farmer Chen Qin-quan:

Farmers who can apply for migrant workers must have a large enough planting area. In the case of flowers, at least five jia or more is needed to reach a certain economic scale where hiring workers pays off. I support opening up the agricultural migrant worker policy, but I hope that when the government formulates policy, the Council of Agriculture and the Ministry of Labor can also come to the production sites to take a look, communicate directly with us farmers, hold forums and so on, or invite us to join when meetings are held to formulate policy - I would be very happy to!

Brother Cai of Dongshi Shijia Farm:

Of course I very much welcome opening up to migrant workers, but my concern is whether opening up to foreign workers across the board will lead to problems such as uneven quality and workers just making up the numbers. In addition, can the migrant workers who come to work as farm laborers be trained, have a basic understanding of agriculture, and not be too young? Usually workers over 30 or 40 can endure hardship better; otherwise ordinary young guys cannot adapt to farm work, which easily leads to a high turnover rate.

Moreover, besides opening up agricultural migrant workers, I feel even more that young people in Taiwan, China returning to their hometowns to farm is definitely a path that can be developed in the future. Even if outsiders come to the countryside to farm, monthly rent is only about 2,000 or 3,000 yuan. Take working part-time at the Shijia organic farm in Dongshi Township as an example: once you have learned skills such as operating harvesters and tillers, you can buy a farm machine and go around helping others plow and till fields, and if you are set on building greenhouses, the output value and capacity of agricultural products will be even higher. If young people can understand the habits of various crops, avoid rushing to plant along with the market, and stagger the peak production periods, they can absolutely break through the "vegetables are gold, vegetables are dirt" problem and carve out a world of their own.

To read the entire "Rural Labor Shortage Series Report," please click here

(This article was funded by the Cheng Chen Environmental Education Foundation for personnel expenses, but it did not interfere at all with news topic selection or interview writing, ensuring journalistic independence.)