Typhoon Soudelor Devastates Agricultural Facilities; Local Authorities Call for Standards and Licensing for Protected Horticulture

In addition to severely battering Wulai District in New Taipei City and Fuxing Township in Taoyuan City, Typhoon Soudelor's fierce winds and torrential rain have caused agricultural losses across Taiwan that have already exceeded 3 billion, according to statistics from the Council of Agriculture, and the figure continues to climb. Chiayi County recorded the highest losses nationwide at about 680 million, one third of which came from damage to agricultural facilities. In response, Lin Liang-mao, director of the Chiayi County Agriculture Department, called for the central government to promote professional standards and a licensing system for agricultural facility builders as extreme weather becomes more frequent, and to cultivate professional talent in horticultural facilities, warning that otherwise "reckless loans will only harm farmers."

Of the total agricultural losses across Taiwan this time, private agricultural facilities accounted for as much as 550 million, about one sixth of the total. In addition to farmland being submerged by floodwaters, many greenhouses and net houses were blown down, poultry and livestock sheds were damaged, and oyster racks, oyster rafts and fishing boat and raft facilities along the coast were destroyed by large waves.

As of 6 p.m. yesterday, agricultural losses in Chiayi County stood at about 680 million yuan, of which about 220 million yuan came from agricultural facilities. Lin Liang-mao said that in the early days, agricultural facilities in Taiwan were mostly built by farmers themselves after buying materials, and were therefore mostly simple movable structures whose ability to withstand weather risks was hardly different from that of open-field farming. Only in the past 30 years, driven by market demand, did protected horticulture begin to shift toward facilities with high protection that can withstand strong winds and torrential rain, giving rise to specialized division of labor and the emergence of agricultural facility builders.