Building a farmhouse requires farm insurance, and the Council of Agriculture will announce the details by the end of June at the earliest
The problem of rampant farmhouse construction is severe. The Council of Agriculture (COA) is amending the regulations governing farmhouse construction, following in the footsteps of the Yilan County Government. In the future, applicants will need to hold farmers' insurance or Category 3 national health insurance status, or undergo a substantive review, in order to build. Once the amendments are sent to the Legislative Yuan for filing, they can be promulgated and implemented, with promulgation expected by the end of June at the earliest.
Building a farmhouse requires farmers' insurance, Category 3 national health insurance status, or substantive review
In 2000, the government amended the "Agricultural Development Act" to open up farmland for free sale, allowing non-farmers to buy and sell farmland and tax-exempt farmhouses. Many plots of farmland began to "grow" one luxury farmhouse after another. According to statistics from the COA's Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, as of March last year, there were 28,405 farmhouses nationwide. Of these, 7,551 were built in Yilan after the amendment of the Agricultural Development Act, and 64% were transferred to others, showing that the commodification of farmhouses is extremely serious.
On April 7, the Yilan County Government announced the "Yilan County Regulations on the Qualification of Farmhouse Construction Applicants and Farmhouse Building Review", clearly stipulating that farmhouse applicants must have farmers' insurance or sign an affidavit undertaking to farm. The COA is following suit, amending the law to require that future farmhouse builders meet one of the following qualifications: first, holding farmers' insurance; second, holding Category 3 national health insurance status; third, if neither of the above applies, submitting an agricultural operation plan, with a review panel checking whether the applicant actually farms.
COA Deputy Minister Chen Wen-de stated that some farmers may hold outside jobs and therefore do not carry farmers' insurance, which is why the substantive review method was established. The builder must attach records of crop sales, natural disaster relief, and proof of purchasing fertilizer and pesticides above a certain amount. In addition, some fishermen do not carry farmers' insurance but instead use aquaculture certificates to obtain Category 3 insurance, so Category 3 national health insurance status was also included.
Why is an operation plan not required if one has farmers' insurance and Category 3 health insurance? Chen Rong-jun, head of the Rural Development Section of the COA's Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, stated that when local governments review farmers' insurance and Category 3 health insurance qualifications, they determine whether the person actually farms.
However, even with restrictions on the qualifications of builders, under current law, buyers do not need to have farmer status when a property changes hands. Chen Wen-de said that regulating the qualifications of farmhouse builders can be done by amending administrative regulations alone and sending them to the Legislative Yuan for filing, with promulgation possible by the end of June at the earliest. But restricting the qualifications for farmhouse transfer is more controversial. Whether to use law or administrative regulations needs further clarification, and in the next month or two there will be intensive meetings with experts, scholars, farmers' associations, and farmer representatives to draft how to amend the law.
