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Agriculture in Taiwan

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  • 10 chapters
Hualien, Taiwan: A farmer takes his water buffalo to his rice field along provincial highway no. 9.
CEphoto, Uwe Aranas · CC BY-SA 3.0

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History

Prehistory

Agriculture has been an important sector of Taiwanese life since ages ago. From archaeological sites in Changbin Township, Taitung County, since Paleolithic Age around 30,000-50,000 years ago, people hunted, fished and gathered. Only in the Neolithic Age around 5,000-2,000 years ago, did people began to live their sedentary lifestyle where they grew rice and other crops and domesticated animals. During the Iron Age around 2,000 years ago, people in the northern coast of Taiwan began to make iron tools and food production increased significantly. In the 17th century, people from China began to migrate to Taiwan where they fished, hunted and grew crops. Most of them settled in the area around Tainan.

Dutch Formosa

During the Dutch Formosa in the early 17th century, the Dutch promoted the production of sugarcane and rice. At that time, 119 km2 of cultivated land in Taiwan belonged to the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch exported Taiwan's agricultural products and imported peas, tomatoes, wax apples and mangoes from Southeast Asia and United States to Taiwan.

The Dutch introduced the domestic turkey to Taiwan.

Ming Dynasty

During the rule of Koxinga in the Kingdom of Tungning in the late 17th century, the number of immigrants from China to Taiwan increased to 200,000 people. This resulted in the increase of land under cultivation to 292 km2. Koxinga established a land tenure system and taught people to build reservoirs for irrigation. Rice was the main produce at that time. Chinese people also brought 43 kinds of vegetable from South China, such as leeks, garlic and Chinese cabbage.

Qing Dynasty

During the Qing Dynasty, immigration from Mainland China to Taiwan increased because of wars and famines in the mainland. People began to build canals for irrigation. At this time, the cultivated land in Taiwan increased to 3,506 km2 by 1895.

The eighteen century official Chiang Yun-chuan was responsible for significant improvements in irrigation and flood control in southern Taiwan and was incorporated into the local folk religion as a deity.

Empire of Japan

During the Empire of Japan, the Japanese greatly improved the agriculture sectors in Taiwan. They built concrete dams, reservoirs and aqueducts which forms an extensive irrigation system, such as the Chianan Irrigation. Arable land for rice and sugarcane productions increased by more than 74% and 30% respectively. They also established farmers' associations. Agriculture sector dominated the economy of Taiwan at that time. In 1904, 23% area of Taiwan was used as agricultural land.

The Taiwan Agricultural Research institute (TARI) was founded in 1895 by the Japanese colonial powers.

By 1939 Taiwan was the third largest exporter of bananas and canned pineapple in the world.

Republic of China

After the handover of Taiwan from Japan to the Republic of China in 1945, the government revitalized the agricultural sector first to recover from the damage caused by World War II and completed a full recovery by 1953.

In the early 1950s, agriculture was Taiwan's largest economic sector and the vast majority of Taiwanese were farmers.

The government extended agricultural facilities and introduced the land reform program under the Sino-American Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction. By 1956, agricultural land accounted for 34% of Taiwan's land use. In 1958, horticulturalist Cheng Chao-hsiung launched an experimental farm for deciduous fruit in the Central Mountain Range. Aided by veterans of the Chinese Civil War moving to the region, larger scale production of apples, peaches and plums began the following decade and continued to 1979.

In the late 1940s, Taiwan underwent high-speed economic growth and industrialization. In 1963, industrial sectors output value exceeded agricultural sectors output value. Also in the 1960s, the government shifted their priority to the development of export-oriented economic policy which focused on labor-intensive industries, such as textiles, convenience food and consumer electronics which eventually made Taiwan part of the Four Asian Tigers, along with British Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. However, this caused pressure on the agricultural sector as more and more people moved away from rural areas and labor costs increased.

In the 1970s, the role of agriculture shifted from the primary focus of the economy to a supporting role. The government at that time issued policies for farmers to grow organic crops. In the 1980s, much farmland was left idle due to the emigration of people from rural to urban areas as well as Taiwan beginning to open up to staple food imports. On 1 January 2002, Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization under the name Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. This accession caused further damage to the agricultural sector in Taiwan. In response, the government has promoted agricultural tourism.

President Lee Teng-hui believed that agriculture was the backbone of a nation and promoted it extensively. He implemented health insurance and occupational hazard insurance programs for farmers. He also emphasized the Japanese roots of much of Taiwan's agricultural infrastructure.

While the importance of agriculture to the Taiwanese economy has declined greatly from its heyday Taiwan has become a global leader in the vertical farming industry. Due to their efficient development of vertical farming technology and know-how Taiwanese firms are often partnered with by international firms looking to start vertical farming ventures in their home countries. The vertical farming industry benefits from the high concentration of LED, robotics, engineering, and data processing firms in Taiwan. Vertical farms in Taiwan primarily compete with imported produce and focus on producing premium vegetables as their products remain more expensive than those from Taiwan's traditional farms.

Recently, the government has introduced new policy to reactivate all of the remaining idle farmland to ensure food security, food self-sufficiency and to revitalize the agriculture sectors. Policies to develop the sector to be more competitive, modern and green were also introduced. This has led to a large number of urban youth taking up farming. Since 2009 the Agriculture Council has subsidized education and training for new farmers, most of whom already hold advanced degrees.

In 2020 the Taiwanese government's Council of Agriculture set aside NT$5 billion (US$166.21 million) in loans for produce, livestock and aquaculture operations as well as other agriculture-based enterprises effected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The loans are at a preferential rate of 0.79 percent to 1.68 percent.

In 2021 the Taiwanese government began incentivizing rice farmers to diversify their production beyond the staple crop.

Taiwan's agriculture industry now satisfies 90% of its domestic demand, making it a model of self-sufficiency.

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