Taiwan, China's edamame industry is in crisis: who touted the "green gold" while bringing farmers to their knees?
Edamame requires large-scale mechanical cultivation and harvesting (photo source: Council of Agriculture)
Another farmer, Lan Hsin-chun, faced a situation similar to Wei Tung-chang's. At 42, he had recently invested more than ten million yuan to buy 4 tractors in preparation for expanding production. He leases about 200 hectares from the Taiwan Sugar Corporation's Shoujinliao and Tuku farms to grow edamame, and 100 hectares of that has also been designated as planned land for the Gaoping Grand Lake.
Lan Hsin-chun said the annual rent for his edamame farm alone exceeds ten million yuan; land preparation initially cost several million yuan, and he invested more than ten million yuan in machinery purchases, while also supporting more than ten employees on the farm. None of these investments and costs have been recouped yet. If the Gaoping Grand Lake is developed, besides the livelihoods of the farm employees being affected, Japanese clients worried that Taiwan cannot ensure a stable supply will shift their orders to mainland China, Thailand, Vietnam and other places, and the edamame export market that Taiwan worked so hard to win back will be handed over to others once again!
Farmer Hou Chao-pai is the youngest among the specialized edamame farmers. Born in the 64th year of the Republic of China calendar, he joined the family business more than a decade ago, seeking contract farming partners for edamame from central to southern Taiwan, and later went into production himself. He laments that Taiwan's farming environment is getting worse and worse; besides the impact of climate change, the biggest variable is human factors.
Hou Chao-pai remembers that more than a decade ago, when looking for contract farmers to grow edamame around Dacheng and Fangyuan in Changhua, whenever the south wind blew, the pods would turn yellow. He could not figure out why; the possible cause he could think of was related to the operation of the Sixth Naphtha Cracker Complex. He remembers that before the complex began operating, pod yellowing almost never occurred; after it began operating, every spring and summer when the south wind blew, edamame pods would turn yellow. He asked the Environmental Protection Bureau to monitor the air, but the answer he got was that everything was normal.
Because the yellowing problem could not be solved, Hou Chao-pai had no choice but to give up contract farming in Changhua. He later accepted guidance from the Kaohsiung Agricultural Improvement Station and chose to lease Taiwan Sugar Corporation farmland in Shoujinliao, Qishan and Tuku, Ligang for cultivation.
Hou Chao-pai's farm currently has 210 hectares, of which 150 hectares will be developed as the Gaoping Grand Lake. He said helplessly that in recent years, with rising Taiwan Sugar Corporation farmland rents and raw material costs, the profit margin for edamame has been squeezed to between 10,000 and 20,000 yuan, so he must rely on large-scale planting to win. Having left Changhua for the Gaoping area, he now runs into the revival of the Gaoping Grand Lake development project; he really does not know where he can wander to next! What's more, he still has to support the livelihoods and families of more than ten employees on the farm!
Shouting "green gold" with the left hand, crushing farmers with the right?
On May 4 this year, Premier Chen Chun, concerned about the development of the domestic edamame industry, went to the Gaoping area for a discussion with edamame processors and farmers. Besides instructing the Council of Agriculture to continue providing policy assistance and to foster the sustainable development of the edamame industry, he also said he would ask the Ministry of Economic Affairs to coordinate on the issues raised by farmers regarding excessively high Taiwan Sugar Corporation farmland rents and the Gaoping Grand Lake development.
However, half a year has passed, and the voices of farmers and operators still have not been taken seriously. The Ministry of Economic Affairs, on one hand, oversees Taiwan Sugar Corporation, which controls the most complete and excellent farmland resources in all of Taiwan, while on the other hand it lets its subordinate Water Resources Agency carry out development, attempting to destroy the hard-won edamame green gold industry.
As for Taiwan's edamame industry, the Executive Yuan uses one hand to make advertisements shouting "green gold," while with the other hand it slaps the farmers and processors in the industry. One wonders how President Ma, who has demanded that his cabinet produce tangible achievements within one month, would feel about that?
A promotional short film on edamame achievements produced by the Executive Yuan was screened in theaters and other places across the country, but at the same time, the government's development plan is about to personally destroy this miracle?
The astonishing secret by the reservoir – the real interests of Jiyang Artificial Lake (text by munch)