Behind the agricultural labor shortage: policy neglect and the tax money burned on subsidies

“University students on public scholarships go into farming, 3,000 people a year to save the labor shortage.”

“In the "New Agriculture Innovation Promotion Plan," the Council of Agriculture rolled out "2 Plus 2," including four measures: agricultural technical teams, farm service teams, open prisons, and weekend farmers, to solve year-round and seasonal, skilled and unskilled agricultural labor shortages. Professional farmers who join the agricultural professional technical team and obtain certification can earn a monthly salary of up to 50,000 yuan in the future.”

Seeing the newly launched policies to deal with the agricultural labor shortage, I can only say that agriculture has been utterly despised! This is how tax money gets burned!

Even the labor shortage has to be solved with salary subsidies - stop looking down on farmers.

As a farmer (farm operator) today, we handle almost everything ourselves, from business management and cultivation management to marketing and sales - no different at all from a small company. Hiring workers is meant to reduce the burden of miscellaneous field chores so that we can focus more on improving produce quality, customer service, and other key matters.

When all success or failure rests on our own shoulders, and all the field equipment - from gloves to work vehicles - is provided by us, the people we hire bear no responsibility at all. I ask you: what we lack, really, is farm operators or agricultural workers?

And, given that we are both boss and bell-ringer, there are some field tasks we simply would not ask employees to do: for example, shaping up the ridge surface, which is relatively heavy work, or more complicated tasks like pulling nets, or even skilled work like spraying and fertilizing.

As for inside the greenhouse, aside from pruning small tomato branches or a few tasks done standing up, other work like hanging melons as in the photo, picking small tomatoes, or pulling weeds is all done sitting on a chair. If such easy field work is worth a monthly salary of 50,000 yuan, then I have to say: no wonder there are so many redundant staff in government agencies now - taxpayers' money is so easy to spend. If it were me, I would also pick the easy work.

Public funding just to find farm workers - don't look down on students.

If public funding combined with farm internships is meant to encourage more students to become outstanding farmers (farm operators), then the policy's intent is truly good.

But when schools and society spend a great deal of resources cultivating them only to solve a problem like the "labor shortage," I truly feel it is not worth it for these children. Because in the government's eyes, your ability amounts to that of a worker. If four years later you are fortunate (?) enough to enter agriculture and become a farmer (farm operator), you will only face a more serious labor shortage predicament, not to mention other policy problems; and if you cannot become a farmer, would you really spend your whole life working for others?

Proposing "2 Plus 2" - please do not trample on agriculture like this.

All told, recently there have probably been more than 20 people coming to apply, and they can roughly be divided into two types: "those with a normal work attitude" and "those who look down on agriculture."

What is interesting is that those with a normal work attitude are mostly people who are themselves operators in other industries and want an extra income outside their main business, mostly Taiwanese; or people who already work half a day in a factory and need a side job, mostly foreign spouses. Many also apply and then the next day say they cannot come, because their current employer panics and will not let them go, and quickly raises their pay to match ours.

As for those who look down on agriculture, most have no particular specialty and cannot handle high-paying jobs, yet they find basic field work boring and unchallenging, and are just here to drift through the days, not really understanding what it means to keep both feet on the ground. When work quality is demanded, they only feel the employer is nitpicking, unaware that it is their own work efficiency that is low.

Today, when every industry lacks people, even without any special skill, as long as you are willing to work you need not worry about unemployment at all. I ask you: among those who join the "agricultural technical teams" and "farm service teams," which type will make up the majority?

As for the open prison part, as an ordinary small citizen, I can only say we cannot afford any accidents.

As for weekend farmers, it is truly laughable. We want to hire workers today so that we can have at least one day off a week. Are we now not even allowed to have holidays for farmers? And when weekend farmers come, their work efficiency will definitely be less than one third of ours, so who exactly should pay the salary - the farmer, or should the other party pay an experience fee?

Taiwan does not need to bring in agricultural foreign workers - so all other countries are utterly incompetent?

Low volatility in agricultural product prices is extremely important for stable prices. For lower-paid basic farm work, advanced countries all open up agricultural foreign labor to fill jobs that most of their own citizens are unlikely to take. Therefore, it is normal for people from countries with lower basic wages to work as foreign laborers in countries with higher hourly wages. Otherwise, why do so many people from Taiwan go to Australian farms as foreign workers every year? It is simply because the local starting pay is high!

And Taiwan's basic wage is far higher than that of some Southeast Asian countries, so what is wrong with opening agricultural foreign labor to them? You would not even need to use taxpayers' money to subsidize wages up to 50,000 yuan a month.

Agriculture is not child's play, and the farmers in it do not have so much time to wait for the government to say, "only after trying everything and finding nothing works will we open up agricultural foreign labor!" Given the administrative planning and processing procedures of public agencies, each method probably takes at least a year to try, and by the time they finish trying, we will probably have left farming too.

"A person must insult himself before others insult him; a person must respect himself before others respect him."

That such an absurd and off-key policy could actually be rolled out only shows that the long-standing contempt for agriculture in the country and society means that the most important policy-making body gives people the image of extremely little respect for its own professionalism.

When the highest body does not respect itself, what kind of eyes can we expect others to look at this industry with?