The agricultural subsidy budget for this year has reached 84.4 billion yuan

In response to former President Lee Teng-hui's request for the government to subsidize farmers' allowances as fertilizer and oil prices have risen, production costs have increased, but rice prices have not risen, the Council of Agriculture issued an explanation on the evening of the 17th. It emphasized that in order to protect the rights and interests of farmers, the government has implemented a number of agricultural subsidies, with an annual budget of 50 billion yuan for old farmers' subsidies. Together with fertilizer subsidies, agricultural water conservancy subsidies, fishery oil, agricultural electricity subsidies, etc., the total agricultural subsidy budget this year reached 84.4 billion yuan, accounting for 63% of the total agricultural budget, effectively helping farmers.

The Council of Agriculture pointed out that in response to rising agricultural raw material prices and higher production costs, the government has taken a number of measures to cope with the situation. For example, fertilizer subsidies amounted to NT$3.5 billion last year, and domestic fertilizer prices are lower than those in Japan and mainland China. The government also increased the purchase price of rice and wet grains, and the income per hectare of rice farmers has increased by about NT$40,000 to NT$50,000 compared to 2010, and farmers' income has increased significantly.

In addition, this year's budget includes 51.1 billion yuan for old farmer subsidies, 19.7 billion yuan for grain policies and fallow subsidies, 6.2 billion yuan for agricultural loan interest and fertilizer subsidies, 2.2 billion yuan for water conservancy association membership fees, 1.8 billion yuan for fishery oil subsidies, and 3.4 billion yuan for other subsidies such as scholarships and disaster relief. The total agricultural subsidies amount to 84.4 billion yuan, accounting for about 63% of the total agricultural budget.

This year, 11 types of fertilizers will continue to be subsidized to reduce farmers' burden. In recent years, as international prices of fertilizer raw materials continued to rise, domestic fertilizer prices have been adjusted appropriately based on the pricing mechanism to reflect raw material costs. After the fertilizer price adjustment in March this year, the government still subsidized each bag of fertilizer ranging from 88 yuan to 277 yuan, and the overall subsidy increase ratio reached 90%. At the same time, after the public grain purchase price was raised last year, farmers' income per hectare increased by about 40,000 to 50,000 yuan compared with 1999, and farmers' income increased significantly.

The Council of Agriculture emphasized that there are currently various subsidy policies such as welfare subsidies for elderly farmers, rice purchase at a guaranteed price, fallow land payments and fertilizer subsidies. The total amount of subsidies accounts for more than 60% of the government's agricultural budget. In addition to placing a heavy financial burden on the government, in response to the impact of trends such as international economic and trade liberalization, food security and climate change on agriculture, various subsidies are no longer in line with development needs for structural adjustment or a friendly environment.

Therefore, it is necessary to integrate the existing agricultural subsidy system in the long term to enable Taiwan's agriculture to achieve the goals of industrial upgrading, structural adjustment and rural revitalization. Even though Taiwan's agriculture is facing difficulties such as trade liberalization and climate change, and has internal problems such as small business scale and aging farmers, the government is still actively working towards the goals of adjusting the industrial structure and enhancing agricultural competitiveness through agricultural policy.