Yilan pioneers an autonomous ordinance: with the consent of two-thirds of landowners, herbicides can be banned

Taiwan, China has a serious problem with herbicide abuse. The day before yesterday, the Yilan County government passed the "Yilan County Herbicide Use Management Self-Governance Ordinance," stipulating that herbicides may be used only in agricultural zones. However, if within a piece of farmland, landlords holding 2/3 of the area consent, the competent authority may also announce that use is prohibited, in the hope of effectively managing land farmed organically and in a friendly manner.

However, Yilan friendly-environment smallholder Yang Wenquan believes that although the county government's intentions are good, it may affect the livelihoods of conventional farmers, and everyone sees each other face to face every day, "I can't bring myself to do it"; the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine of the Council of Agriculture also takes a reserved attitude toward "the minority obeying the majority," believing that enforcement will be difficult.

Using herbicides on non-agricultural land is punishable by a fine of 10,000 to 100,000, to be sent to the council before May

Besides the dispute over whether herbicides may be used on farmland, manpower is also a major problem. The self-governance ordinance explicitly excludes irrigation ditches from the scope of farmland. Earlier, the Yilan Irrigation Association complained that the county has more than 9,000 ditches, and irrigation ditches and farm roads are also farmland in a broad sense, so manual weeding simply cannot clear them all.

However, because the irrigation association elections will be held next month, the current chairman, Xu Nanshan, cautiously stated that the self-governance ordinance has only been sent out by the county government and still needs to be reviewed by the council, so it is necessary to wait until the situation is clear, and for the time being it is inconvenient to express an opinion.

Chen Dengqin, who is promoting the legislation, said firmly: "Clean, safe land has never been cheap. Solving things in a cheap way is putting the cart before the horse." He hopes to return to the approach that public management should take, and in the past public funds were all earned by pesticide dealers. Using manual mowing can create employment opportunities, and government departments should take the lead. The Yilan County government has already purchased ten mowers, and if needed, they can be applied for from the county government.

In addition, the self-governance ordinance is also the first in the country to track the flow of herbicides. Buyers must show relevant certification documents as farmers, and sellers must register the purchaser's name, address, telephone number and other basic information, recording the target of control, location and purchase quantity, which is even more rigorous than the current "Pesticide Management Act," in the hope of starting to guard the gate from the source.