130,000 Illegal Factories on Farmland; Half of Newly Built Ones to Be Demolished by Year-End, Farmhouses Are the Next Target

Under the Regional Plan Act, since 1975 all farmland nationwide has been designated as either special agricultural zones or general agricultural zones, with land-use controls implemented so that prime farmland can be kept in agricultural use. However, that plan has now been in place for more than 40 years, and according to the Council of Agriculture's latest inventory, the number of illegal factories on farmland not only exceeds the 69,000 identified in the Ministry of Economic Affairs' survey but has doubled to more than 130,000. Other farmland that has been occupied also exceeds 17%, and more than a thousand hectares of farmland are contaminated by heavy metals. These cancers on farmland have become a pain in farmers' hearts.

To improve such an embarrassing situation, the Council of Agriculture has declared that it will demolish half of the newly built illegal structures before the end of this year, while also offering high compensation payments to legalize "clustered" factories on their current sites. Farmers can also get back equivalent farmland, so as to maintain the foundation of keeping farmland in agricultural use.

Not a single case can escape! Illegal factories and farmhouses on farmland have nowhere to hide | Farmland inventory platform officially launched today

Recover the lost farmland! Only 570,000 hectares left for agricultural production | 100,000 hectares of farmland not in agricultural use | Go online in September for everyone to expose violations