Yilan has few farmers but many farmhouses: nearly 80% have been illegally used, and 60% of farmhouses changed hands within 3 years
Farmhouses in Yilan have been sprouting up like bamboo shoots after rain since the Hsuehshan Tunnel opened to traffic in 2006. In recent years, two-thirds of all newly added farmhouses nationwide have been in Yilan. According to data from the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau of the Council of Agriculture, over the past 15 years Yilan County added 6,324 farmhouse building permits, while the four traditional agricultural counties of Yunlin County, Chiayi County, Tainan City and Pingtung County together added only 2,683; the farmhouses in just Yuanshan, Dongshan and Sanxing Townships in Yilan outnumber those built in Yunlin County over 15 years.
The increase in farmhouses in Taiwan's four major agricultural counties is less than half that of Yilan County, yet the number of farming households in these four major agricultural counties is 10 times that of Yilan, plainly showing how rampant farmhouses are across the Lanyang Plain. Based on relevant data from the Council of Agriculture and the Yilan County Government, NewsMarket presents the farmhouse construction situation in Yilan in recent years through data charts.
1. Over the past 15 years, the four southern agricultural counties together added less than half the farmhouses of Yilan
To promote agricultural land development, in 2000 the government amended the "Agricultural Development Act," opening up the free sale of farmland, allowing non-farmers to buy and sell farmland and granting tax-exempt farmhouses, which began the trend of building houses on farmland.
The Soil and Water Conservation Bureau of the Council of Agriculture used the "National Farmhouse Construction Management Data" provided by the Ministry of the Interior to analyze the number of farmhouses from the opening of the Agricultural Development Act in 2000 to March of last year. Nationwide there were 28,405 farmhouse building permits, with Yilan County taking first place, adding 6,324 within 15 years, followed by Nantou County with 4,048 and Miaoli County with 3,359.
The four traditional major agricultural counties of Yunlin County, Chiayi County, Tainan City and Pingtung County together added only 2,683, accounting for just 9.4% of the national total. Yilan County alone accounts for more than 20% of the national total; in other words, the number of farmhouses in the four major agricultural counties is less than half that of Yilan County.
Increase in the number and proportion of farmhouses by county and city from 2000 to March 2013
The Soil and Water Conservation Bureau further analyzed the distribution of farmhouses in Yilan, Miaoli and Nantou Counties and found that farmhouses in these three counties and cities tend to cluster toward major townships and national highways and expressways. "These areas are all regions where leisure tourism and rural residence trends have prevailed in recent years; whether farmhouses in these areas are truly needed by farmers for agricultural operations is highly questionable," the bureau analyzed.
2. Yilan's number of farming households is only one-tenth that of the four major southern agricultural counties
In recent years many people have returned to rural life, and Yilan, free of industrial zone pollution, has become the top choice. It may be understandable that farmhouses there have grown more than in other counties and cities. However, according to the Council of Agriculture's Agricultural Statistics Yearbook, Yilan County had only 27,612 farming households in 2012, while Yunlin County had 74,594, Chiayi County 58,719, Tainan City 92,195 and Pingtung County 61,226. The four major agricultural counties together had more than 280,000 farming households, 10 times that of Yilan, yet the increase in farmhouses over the past 15 years was only half that of Yilan.
Number and proportion of farming households by county and city in 2012
3. After the Hsuehshan Tunnel opened, farming households fell by 1,000 while 1.7 farmhouses were built every day
Yilan's farmhouses grew rapidly after the Agricultural Development Act was amended, but they truly "made a splash" after the Hsuehshan Tunnel opened in 2006.
According to statistics from the Yilan County Government, before 2006 Yilan's farmhouses increased by about 300 per year. After the Hsuehshan Tunnel opened, farmhouses in that year suddenly surged by more than 500, and thereafter through 2013 grew at an average rate of 600 per year, producing 1.7 farmhouses every day.
The Yilan County Government's farmhouse data differs slightly from the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau's statistics, but the latest data show that from 2000 to the end of 2014, a total of 7,612 farmhouses were built within Yilan's jurisdiction, causing the loss of 1,900 hectares of farmland, about 73 Daan Forest Parks, accounting for 12% of the county's farmland area.
Interestingly, from 2006 to 2012, Yilan's farming households decreased by nearly 1,000 (27,000, no—28,446 in 2006 and 27,612 in 2012), yet 4,231 farmhouses were added, clearly showing that someone else is using the farmhouses.
(Note: Yilan County had 27,037 farming households in 2000, out of 720,000 nationwide; 28,446 in 2006, out of 760,000 nationwide; and 27,612 in 2012, out of 780,000 nationwide.)
4. Nearly 80% of Yilan's farmhouses have been used illegally
Normally, ordinary farmhouses can be tax-exempt, but Yang Wen-chuan revealed that the Yilan Tax Bureau investigated 7,600 farmhouses in the county and found that nearly 6,000 had been deemed non-compliant and assessed land value tax. The reasons for violation included unauthorized construction, concrete paving, garden landscaping and so on.
By conversion, nearly 80% of farmhouses have not put farmhouse land to agricultural use. Even more staggering, the Yilan Tax Bureau found that of the farmhouses that obtained legal use permits in the past 5 years, 60% were transferred within 3 years. "This is very clear—many farmhouses are simply not being used by farmers," Yang Wen-chuan said.
5. Yuanshan Township in Yilan has the most farmhouses
Where exactly are all these farmhouses built? Soil and Water Conservation Bureau data show that from 2009 to 2013, the area with the most farmhouses in Yilan was Yuanshan Township, adjacent to Yilan city, with 1,060; second was Dongshan Township, known to all for its Children's Folklore Festival, with 691; and third was Sanxing Township with 585. The eastern sides of these three townships border Jiaoxi Township, Yilan City and Luodong Township respectively, all of which are Yilan's most famous tourist areas.
A local once revealed that because Sanxing Township made its name through its organic village, many city dwellers, worried that building a homestay in the countryside would mean breathing in pesticides, specifically asked to live near the organic village, leaving farmers unsure whether to laugh or cry.
