Typhoon Soudelor agricultural losses near 2.5 billion; bamboo shoots damage exceeds pomelo, second only to bananas
Typhoon Soudelor swept across Taiwan, and agricultural losses across Taiwan continued to rise to 2.46 billion yuan, of which Chiayi County suffered losses of up to 550 million, about one fifth of Taiwan's total agricultural losses. In addition to agricultural, fishery, livestock and poultry products, 180 million yuan of the losses were private facilities. In addition, the damaged area of bamboo shoots gradually soared to 4,483 hectares, surpassing the badly damaged pomelo of the previous day and second only to bananas. Bamboo shoot farmers lamented that this would not only affect the bamboo shoots about to be harvested, but next year's output might drop sharply to below 60 percent.
On the third day after the typhoon left Taiwan, township offices around the island continued to tally the agricultural damage brought by Soudelor. According to statistics from the Council of Agriculture, as of 5 p.m., Chiayi County was the most severely damaged among all counties and cities, followed in order by Yunlin County, Tainan City, Kaohsiung City, Pingtung County and Yilan County, and together with Hualien County, Changhua County and Taichung City, more than half of Taiwan's counties and cities had agricultural damage exceeding 100 million yuan.
Among the damaged crops, bananas remained the most severely affected, with a damaged area of about 4,874 hectares, followed by bamboo shoots, papaya, pomelo and guava. According to today's statistics, the damaged area of bamboo shoots showed a soaring trend, mainly concentrated in Yunlin County and Taoyuan City. Hu Shufen, chief of the Agricultural Affairs Section of the Department of Agriculture of Taoyuan City, pointed out that most of the bamboo forests and bamboo shoots within its jurisdiction were blown down by the typhoon, with a loss area of nearly 600 hectares.
Qiu Ronghan, who cultivates organic bamboo shoots in Daxi, Taoyuan, also could not escape Soudelor's attack this time. Although the 7 greenhouses he separately built escaped disaster, "however, in the 1.47 hectares of bamboo forest, many fell over, and many bamboo shoots were snapped in the middle and were almost all destroyed. I think next year's bamboo shoot output may drop to below 60 percent.
Council of Agriculture to trial crop insurance, starting with high-graft pears
In order to respond to global climate anomalies and the natural disaster losses brought to agriculture, the Council of Agriculture announced today that it will draft the "Directions for Subsidies for the Trial Implementation of Natural Disaster Insurance for Crops," trial natural disaster insurance for high-graft pear crops, and provide partial premium subsidies to farmers participating in crop insurance. The Council of Agriculture stated that the high-graft pear policy developed by property insurance companies has been sent to the Financial Supervisory Commission for review, and can be launched once approved in the near future, proceeding in parallel with agricultural natural disaster relief.
In addition, the Council of Agriculture will also list crops such as mango, sweet persimmon, Kyoho grape, papaya, tankan orange, pomelo, sugar apple, wax apple and rice as priority items for promotion, hoping that property insurance companies can continue developing policies one after another.