Illegal farmhouses to be published online starting in the second half of the year, netizens can help supervise

The Council of Agriculture amended the "Regulations for the Construction of Farmhouses on Agricultural Land" in July of the year before last, restricting the construction of "cluster farmhouses" (20 farmhouses or more built adjacent to one another after 20 farmers apply at the same time) in specially designated agricultural zones and forest zone agricultural and pastoral land. The Council of Agriculture had asked local governments to carry out spot checks on farmhouses whose construction was applied for after the new regulations were announced and to report back by the end of March. A total of 2,554 cases met the conditions, but only 108 have been reported so far, a spot-check rate of 4%, and 82 of them were found to be illegally used, a violation rate as high as 76%.

The Council of Agriculture said the violations included farmhouse expansion, adding walls, laying landscape turf and ponds, placing shipping containers without permission, iron-sheet structures, laying concrete paving, adding garages, adding factory buildings, and having no farming at all.

The counties and cities that have reported so far include Taipei City, New Taipei City, Taichung, Changhua, Chiayi County, Chiayi City, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Taitung, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and Keelung; 9 counties and cities still have not reported, including Taoyuan City, Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County, Miaoli County, Nantou County, Yunlin County, Pingtung County, Yilan County, and Hualien County. Among them, Yilan, Nantou, and Miaoli are the counties and cities with the largest number of farmhouses in Taiwan, and the number of violations may increase after they report in the future.

The Council of Agriculture has recently been actively reviewing farmhouse-related regulations. Legislators Chen Chieh-ju, Chiu Wen-yen, and Tien Chiu-chin held a public hearing today titled "Farmland should be used for farming, and farmhouses should be used for farming even more." Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Chen Wen-te said the low spot-check rate was because county and city governments were busy investigating avian influenza. In the future, the Council of Agriculture is considering joint supervision and spot checks with the Ministry of the Interior, forming an inspection team with local governments, publishing illegal farmhouses online, and having the whole public supervise.

Illegal farmhouses may have their licenses revoked at the most serious level, restoring the farmland

The Council of Agriculture plans to amend farmhouse-related regulations to require that farmhouse builders possess Category 3 agricultural insurance or national health insurance status, or pass a substantive review, before construction, so as to ensure farmhouses are used for farming. However, the Council of Agriculture said there is no issue of retroactivity, because as long as a farmhouse is not used for farming, it can be fined at any time.

Regarding existing non-compliant farmhouses, Lin Chang-li, deputy director-general of the Council of Agriculture's Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, said local governments can impose fines of 60,000 to 300,000, which can be imposed repeatedly. Those who fail to improve repeatedly will have their farmer status revoked, and the farmhouse will then also become an illegal structure. The local government can be asked to handle the illegal structure under the "Regional Plan Act" and the "Urban Planning Act" and require restoration of the farmland to its original state.

The public is concerned about whether the farmhouse in Yilan of former Premier Frank Hsieh is legal. Yang Wen-chuan, director of the Yilan County Agriculture Department, said Hsieh's farmhouse indeed has violations; although the illegal wall has already been removed, there is still illegal filling of soil, and the soil must be dug out, otherwise fines will continue.