Friendly agriculture self-management has been reviewed by the government, and farmers under it can receive land-based subsidies.
Eco-friendly farming is confirmed to be written into laweco-friendly farming practices are diverse, so how should they be managed? To what extent should the government regulate them? The New Taipei City Agriculture Department, the Agriculture and Food Agency, and the Ci-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation yesterday (21st) hosted the "Eco-friendly Farming Groups Forum," inviting eco-friendly farmers and agricultural groups from all schools and factions to participate and discuss what the future Organic Agriculture Act should actually look like.
A preliminary framework for the draft Organic Agriculture Act has already been drawn up. Wang An-shih, head of the Agriculture and Food Agency's Agricultural Resources Division, said the draft is expected to be sent to the Legislative Yuan for review in early next year, to see whether it can pass in the next session.
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Eco-friendly farming should be placed under the Agricultural Basic Act framework, on par with organic farming
"In fact, both eco-friendly agriculture and organic agriculture are among the ways to move toward sustainable development." Chen Chieh-ting, associate researcher at the Agricultural Policy Research Center of the Agricultural Technology Research Institute, pointed out that only by stepping outside the established framework of organic agriculture thinking when discussing organic and eco-friendly farming is it possible for every approach to have room to survive, "and only then will the outside world not misunderstand, when eco-friendly agriculture is included only at this point, that it means organic agriculture is superior to eco-friendly agriculture."
Since "sustainable development" is the direction Taiwan, China's agriculture should strive toward in the future, does discussing practices such as organic agriculture and eco-friendly agriculture only through the Organic Agriculture Act inevitably fall into organic thinking? Should we instead start from the Agricultural Basic Act and set "sustainability" as the main axis, which would also help promote the practices of all schools and factions?
Chen Chieh-ting said that if we start from the Agricultural Basic Act and incorporate practices such as organic and eco-friendly agriculture, the two can be discussed in parallel, both being among the methods for achieving sustainable agriculture, and related supporting measures and subsidiary laws can also be drafted in accordance with the sustainable parent-law framework of the Agricultural Basic ActOrganic Agriculture Act is running ahead of the Agricultural Basic Act."