The Pingtung Swallows Flying South Program is an exchange platform for young people entering agriculture

To encourage young people to return to their hometowns to farm, the Pingtung County Government launched the "Swallows Flying South - Youth Returning Home" program at the beginning of the year, offering 60 hours of courses, matching internship farms, and a subsidy of 360,000. All 72 admission slots were filled, but as farm internships recently began, some trainees left, leaving 52 trainees. In response, the Pingtung County Agriculture Department believes this may be due to differences in how trainees understand the program, while Swallows Flying South trainees believe that farming is inherently hard work and that having people to exchange ideas and discuss with is very important.

The Swallows Flying South program offers courses, internships and allowances

In the Swallows Flying South program promoted by the Pingtung County Government, after registration closed at the end of February this year, a total of 205 people had applied, and after written and oral exams, 72 trainees were admitted. Training began in early April, providing trainees with 60 hours of agricultural knowledge and farm visit courses.

In addition to classroom courses, the Pingtung County Government also matches trainees to farms for internships, with each farm providing a monthly living allowance of 10,000, while the Pingtung County Government subsidizes another 10,000, though the Pingtung County Government subsidy can only be collected after the training ends. Once trainees confirm they will farm, the Pingtung County Government will provide an additional startup subsidy of up to 120,000. Therefore, at the beginning of their farming career, trainees participating in Swallows Flying South can receive up to 360,000 in subsidies.

In May and June of this year, the Pingtung County Government carried out two rounds of farm internship matching. For the internship farms, 26 farms participated in the program, growing items including onions, rice, fruit, vegetables, flowers and more, and these farms all have a certain level of experience in production technology and sales channels.

Of the 72 trainees, 20 left during the internship stage

If a farm owner has no time to teach and simply uses interns as laborers, or if trainees only want to take free courses and receive living allowances, neither fits the original intent of the Swallows Flying South program. One young Pingtung farmer believes that both trainees and farms need entry and exit mechanisms: trainees can switch farms, and farms can also send trainees away. "Only after entry and exit can the people who want to work in agriculture be retained."

Another Swallows Flying South trainee, Chen Jinbao, said: "People who truly want to farm will keep going no matter how hard it is." He previously worked as an office worker in Kaohsiung. Because his parents were elderly, he wanted to return home to farm and care for his family, but the family's wax apple orchard had been rented to other farmer friends for cultivation for many years, and he had no planting experience at all. When he first moved back home early this year, "I looked at the wax apple orchard all day and did not know what to do, so I just kept spacing out, feeling very helpless inside."

After joining the Swallows Flying South program, Chen Jinbao chose to intern at a wax apple farm in Jiadong. On the first day he reported, his whole body had an allergic reaction, and the itching lasted for a week straight, itching during the day and making it hard to sleep at night. To avoid allergies, he had to wear a raincoat while working in the fields.

"Between sweating and itching, I would rather choose sweating." Chen Jinbao said allergies cannot be gotten used to; one can only protect as much as possible, put on a raincoat, and use sweating instead of itching.

Chen Jinbao said that after joining the Swallows Flying South program, he no longer stared blankly at the wax apple orchard. "Whenever I encounter difficulties, there are teachers and classmates to discuss with me, helping me find direction and methods."

Zheng Yongyu, section chief of the Agricultural Production and Marketing Section of the Pingtung County Agriculture Department, believes the purpose of the Swallows Flying South program is to "cultivate a new force for rural Taiwan." Those who truly farm all come from not knowing to knowing, moving forward bit by bit. In the future, the Pingtung County Government will also plan advanced training courses for Swallows Flying South trainees, giving substantive assistance on the problems trainees actually encounter in farming, from production technology to sales channels and other aspects.