The Mid-term Agricultural Program of the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan (2013-2016)
I. Mission and Vision
ONE: MISSION
Agriculture sector is the basis for national economic development. The Council of Agriculture of Executive Yuan is the agency which is in charge of crop, forestry, fishery, and livestock industry’s development as well as the national food security affairs. Meanwhile, the policy of the Council also focuses our food security, environmental protection, and the promotion of the rural culture economic value. The ultimate goal is that we are going to establish a LOHAS agricultural rural area life. The other focus is on restructuring the current agriculture so that it can cope with the world economic trend. For this the main strategies are to strengthen the effectiveness of agribusiness management and the efficient utilization of natural resources to ensure the development of the sustainable agriculture of Taiwan.
The Council of Agriculture will continue to promote the agriculture industry, along with the restructuring of agriculture resources in order to upgrade the farm sector’s competitiveness. At the same time, also put emphasis on integrating the related primary, secondary and the third industry together to innovate the agricultural policies. The final goal is to increase the value-chain value of agriculture. In addition to this, we are promoting the internationalization of agri-tourism as well as setting the food safety standard in order to comply with the international standard. In order to advance our agriculture ,we are going to use new information as well as green scientific technology to create new agricultural production environment and assist other developing countries to advance their agricultural technology in order to increase their food production by which way we also can increase our products export opportunities. The purpose to carry above- mentioned measures is to promote our agriculture toward green and the service-oriented development which we hope not only agriculture become a local industry also an international one.
TWO: VISION
To establish agriculture become a young, dynamic and highly competitive industry in order to increase farmer’s income and make Taiwan’s agriculture as a LOHAS model.
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II. The focus of the Mid-term Program
ONE: FUTURE AGRICULTURAL SITUATION ANALYSIS
Agriculture is a bio-based industry, also an industry the national people rely on living. The development, besides limited by natural environment, also is limited by social change as well as international economic system. Below is the analysis of this situation:
(1) The international economy development directs toward the regional integration and the agricultural trade direct to further liberalization.
Since the year 2002, Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization, since then our agricultural industry face further trade liberalization. And in East Asia Area now, the 「 Asian 十 1 」 trade network have been established. In addition to this, 「 the Trade Party Partnership(TPP) 」 proposed by New Zealand and Singapore also under negotiating, under the Program, besides certain few items can keep their current tariff, all the products tariff should be reduced to 0% in the year 2015. This is a more trade liberalization agreement already attractive most of the countries attention.
Taiwan and China signed a 「 Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement(ECFA) 」 in the year of 2010, the purpose of the agreement is intending the Taiwan’s international participation. Regardless the uncertainty between Taiwan and China currently still existence, China already become the second economic entity of the world in the year of 2010. As a result, the bilateral trade is becoming necessary at this time.
Since we faced with the internationalization of the trade is unavoidable, the agricultural sector sincerely will face strong challenges in the future, at the same time, in the area of bilateral agricultural cooperation and competitiveness, how to take properly of the advantage of our geographic location and the ECFA to our benefit as well as use China’s position on world economic position is also our main concern.
(2) Climate change dramatically which threaten our food security
Based on IPCC(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) of United Nation at the 4th evaluation report estimated, during the past 100 years, the earth temperature rise 0.74 ℃ annually in average. The rising trend is continuing, and unfortunately, rising more quickly than the last 100 years. The rise of earth temperature surely will drive the sea level rising also and making the earth climate change even more dramatically and more difficult to predict. According to our Central Weather Bureau estimate, from the year of 1897 through 2008, Taiwan’s plain area temperature rise by 1.2 ℃ which means the isotherm of years move northward about 100 km, and the sea surface temperature has risen about by 1 ℃ and rise by stepwise way. These dramatic climate changes will affect the agricultural production, at the same time increase the damage of agriculture.
In the year of 2010, Taiwan’s food sufficient rate was 31.7% (counted by calories), the main food products include rice, vegetables, fruits, meats and fishes, their sufficient rate are above 80%. But wheat, corn used as animal feed and soybean, those grains rely heavily on importation. In order to comply with the climate dramatically change as well as the price of these products increase, how to design a food security scheme to ensure the food security and stability is very important. In addition to this, owing to the degrade of agricultural natural resources because of the climate change, how to keep it productive, sustainably reduce the impact of it in order to provide sustainable production environment for the agriculture to produce our needed products become a challenging issue for us, too.
(3) Agricultural new technology and its related technology progressed rapidly.
Agricultural technology innovation is the engine for agriculture further development. Using the knowledge as the main agricultural technology developmental instrument and apply this new technology which includes bio-technology, IT technology etc. in agricultural production is universally adapted in every country. In addition, most of the countries also emphasis on appropriate IPR management in order to protect the benefit bring by their technology development.
In the year of 2010, the total production value of agri-biotechnology had reached 29.1 billion dollars, from this figure we can understand that the bio-technology play a very important role in agriculture. On the other side, information technology and internet advancement establish an international community, it impacts individual person; organizations, countries as well as the whole world dramatically. Integration of different industries which include industry as well as the service industry and the whole system of a country will be a character of future agricultural industry ; no doubt we can use the resources much more efficient. This is the unavoidable trend and which also we can increase our agricultural competitiveness.
(4) The consumer changes their food consumption style and food safety become more important in the future.
The whole world food consumption has been heavily affected by the development of developing and emerging countries’ per capita income and population increase. The food demand increase dramatically, t he needed main staple food products transform from raw products to highly processed, well-prepared or fast- served products.
Accordingly, the demand of farm products diversifies greatly, and the consumers focus on the products’ quality as well as its safety.
As for the domestic food consumption, in the year of 2010, our people’s per capita food consumption, in terms of calories, was 2,697 calories. Whereas, our Department of Health suggested that, for the people who work moderately, the appropriately needed quantity is 2,200 calories. The per capita consumption is 1.2 times of the suggested consumption quantity. The food consumption actually had not complied the government- set standard. According to the Council of Economic Planning and Development’s estimate report which based on our population growth, at the year of 2017, the total population above 65 years old will occupy more than 14%. Taiwan will be going into aged-society, and at the year of 2025, this ratio will rise to 20%. The society population structure will skid toward aged-population, and this situation, in addition to the decrease young population will also affect food consumption pattern greatly.
TWO: THE MAIN POLICIES IN THE NEXT FOUR YEARS
Agriculture is the basic industry of a country. Faced with highly trade liberation, dramatic climate change, natural resources limitation, farm products unstable supply as well as the shortage of its marketing channels, we are now urgently to improve these disadvantages. At the same time, the industry also face aged producers so that government should work out the measures to attractive more young people to get involved in this business in order to accelerate the structure change, increase the production efficiency, activate the resources utilization to achieve the objective of sustainable agricultural development. In the future, COA will follow the Executive Yuan’s policy instruction “ increasing people’s wealth and let the people feel secure “, base on focusing health, efficiency as well as sustainability as the core value along with the integration of advanced agricultural technology, rural culture, farmland and rural labor resources through the use of advanced information and green technology to increase the agriculture management efficiency in order for Taiwan’s agricultural sector can comply with the need of international trend.
Agriculture sector play multifunction for a country already be recognized by most of the countries of the world. From this perspective, the government’s responsibility is to increase the farm products’ international competitiveness. Besides, food security, country’s ecology preservation, rural lifestyle as well as rural culture, at the same time should be also considered as the core values of the country’s policies. Soil and water resources are the fundamentals for agricultural production, in order to obtain the food security; we need to upgrade the use of these resources to increase production efficiency. For our people’s happiness we need to increase our rural life’s quality by going along with the farm business development and rural regeneration program. As a result, we can achieve our government policies goals successfully. The future agricultural policies’ focus can be explained as follows:
(1) Increasing the competitiveness of our agriculture sector to comply with the internationalization of the agricultural products.
1. Constructing agricultural integrated cloud service system. • Provide the agricultural and marketing information service to the industry by the use of the advanced cloud information technology. At the same time, integrate the digital agricultural production and marketing information to dissimulate them to the needed people who involved in the farming business, for them to use so they can work more efficiently. • Establish agricultural products traceability system by cloud technology, and provide this service to the needed people in the agri-business: review the current CAS, organic products and products with traceability system, and strengthen them with labeling and verification system, by using advanced cloud information system. In addition to that, we are going to establish a domestic beef traceability system to ensure the safety of the beef sold in our domestic market. Especially we are going to strengthen domestic produced beef labeling system, in order to provide to the consumer enough safety information to ensure them the product’s safety so our cattle industry can be sustainable in the future. • To provide the cloud information service to the leisure agriculture development: integrate all EZGO, Bravo Rural Village and Taiwan Forest as well as other rural leisure service networks to provide the consumer’s easy to use information system. • To provide the local agricultural and marketing groups with the cloud information services: To strengthen the jointly use for the current farmer’s production and marketing organizations in order to preserve the products’ high quality during the production process. • To provide the emergency natural disaster services using the advanced cloud information technology: use the rainfall record in whole island, mudflow warning system, road map for the public to retreat and natural disaster information to increase the efficiency of the natural disaster rescue action. • Developing special agricultural production site and farm management cloud services: gathering seven kinds of information: meteorology, water, soil, fertilizer management, plant pest warning, marketing planning, and agriculture precaution to provide farmers with specific information of farming, in order to manage crop growth environment and improving the changeable method to resist risk more easily.
2. Strengthening early warning and regulations to stabilize the agricultural production and marketing • Putting counseling and implementation of agricultural production and marketing into action and stabilize the measures thereof: through setting the annual production target, field production survey, production and marketing price monitoring and early warning, product marketing plan, those marketing adjustment measures to guide farmers to high quality and competitive agricultural production, etc., in order to stabilize their production and marketing. • Strengthening early warning and regulation of fisheries marketing mechanisms: reinforcing analysis of fishery trading market and function so that to forecast the product’s supply and demand in order to stabilize the production and marketing. Reinforcing the international fishery trade information collection, and promoting sales contract between fishermen and processing plants to stabilize the products quality and fishermen’s income.
3. Collaborating with interdisciplinary, accelerating to construct agricultural industry value chain: use an agricultural enterprise and farmers’ group as the central management body, utilizing industry produce value-added products by using farmers farms as satellite farms and standardizing the norms of production and marketing. By so doing, we can form a tight and stable supply chain relationship , and the farmer groups become the regional agricultural specialties industry center.
4. Promoting agricultural science advanced technology research and put the result into use for industrial development, in order to strengthen agricultural growth momentum • Sieving out the technology and products of agricultural advantages: through the cooperation of agricultural industry and university on R & D program to solve the current key technical problems. • Shortening fund-raising schedule of agricultural listed company: promoting potential of new products and new investments for agriculture.
5. Combining green energy, developing the high efficiency and energy-saving innovative agricultural technology. • Building modern production facilities (equipment): encouraging flowers and vegetables production and marketing in order to use fully of the facilities (equipment) improving the existing physical environment, to stabilize the summer vegetable production as well as to upgrade the quality of flowers. • Encouraging to upgrade fisheries production and reducing the burden of electricity expenses to farmers and fishermen, continuing to handle domestic waterwheel manufactures in testing paddlewheel aerators and promoting to subsidize fishermen in setting energy-saving paddlewheel aerators. • The usage of sparse timber: organizing forestry production and marketing cooperatives, utilizing environmentally-friendly and highly efficient harvesting technology, producing forest products which comply with environmental ecology and protection , combining the local industries to build regional production system and use the high-quality green technology in forest management and the products’ utilization. • Using green and newly developed agricultural technology: introducing high energy-efficient water-saving agricultural facilities and technology, developing energy-saving production facilities; combining usage of green energy with the associated energy-saving design to produce healthy, safe and high nutritional value agricultural products through this new technology application.
6. Strengthening global distribution of agricultural products • Promoting export-oriented agricultural products: taking markets need as a guide, moving towards the development of “world class manufacturing” and “international marketing”, continue to promote Taiwan’s products to the global market. Keeping building export manufacturing zone and a contract system, and establishing safety management system for export products. • International marketing: promote brand name products, development of Japan, China and other niche markets, and strengthening international promoting activities, building international image; cooperating with the main target market partners by setting overseas bases for display and sale of our agricultural products to diversify our products’ marketing pipeline to build our products’ international high quality image. • Promoting ornamental fish industry: improving international competitiveness and imposing “reinforcing scientific and technological research and development to enhance the core competitiveness of the industry”, “strengthening industrial assistance and, sounding the management”. Meanwhile, “expand marketing, enhancing export competitiveness”, as well as “promoting industry clusters, to accelerate export”. • Grouper industry: developing high quality of grouper industry, and actively promoting the development of biodiversity-based products. In addition, we are not only increasing the international market, but also expanding our domestic market. • Developing bamboo products innovation and applications: promoting the FSC forest verification to comply with the international standards, and expanding new markets, as well as strengthening to export to international markets. • Livestock and poultry industry: developing distinctive and exquisite high value-added processing of animal products. Integrating the marketing and logistic supply chain technology, enhancing product quality assurance mechanisms for health and safety and, assisting industry and industry groups to set up common orders and export platform to construct the overall market of livestock and poultry products.
7. Promoting internationalization for leisure agriculture • Promoting agricultural-depth travel: building regional leisure agricultural areas which are able to demonstrate the core features of our village spirit, promoting the healthy, environmental protection, low-carbon green tourism, developing agricultural tourism products with local characters. Promoting fisheries and its leisure travel to full utilization of the resources; planning headroom fishing, creating new value for fishing, assisting regional fishermen group to integrate with local industry culture and so on. Promoting forest eco-tourism, serial forest recreation areas, nature centers and other attractions nearby, creating mountains travel. Providing with theme tourism and the provision of services, according to the needs of different customer groups, work on the needed projects and activities which for them to experience. Meanwhile, encouraging the school to conduct the rural school teaching experience, nurturing young generation to know multifunctional agriculture and realize the value of caring for the country. • Strengthening the Services Quality Certification for the promotion of leisure farms: reinforcing agricultural leisure area and international reception capacity for leisure farms.
8. Participating in international and cross-strait economic and trade negotiations and, implementing the agricultural structure adjustment. • Eliminating the barriers to trade tariffs and non-tariffs. • Participating in international organizations and bilateral economic and trade consultations: participating in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference (APEC), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other multilateral and bilateral FTA negotiations on agricultural issues to cope with the international agricultural trade liberalization rules. • Establishing cross-strait fishery operating order and cooperation mechanism: curbing the China’s fishing boats invades Taiwan’s waters and promoting the utilization of cross-strait fishery resources harmoniously by cooperation.
(2) Adjusting agricultural structure, fostering agricultural staff capability and, developing value-added products production.
1. Enhancing the quality and operational efficiency of farmers. • Establishing farmer retirement system: pushing subsidies away from agriculture, encouraging the release farmland right of retired farmer and giving the retired farmer with livelihood improvement plan.
• Promoting small landowners large tenant policy: encouraging young professional tenant farmers or farmer groups to rent the farm belongs to the farmers who unable or unintentional to farm, planting import substitution or crops in production and marketing in order to expand the scale of agricultural operations and rejuvenate the rural area. • Promoting farmers’ college: combining agricultural research, education, marketing resources, establishing a comprehensive system of agricultural education and training for farmers, providing a high level of agricultural training programs to young people who are interested in farming, enhancing agricultural operations to young farmers; and strengthening farmers’ college network service platform. Handling trainee farm practical training, reinforcing capacity of the young farmers’ training and reward system in order to strengthen the farmers’ farming technology of new generation of farmers. • Establishing young farmers counseling center: providing industry-university cooperation, technology transfer and management counseling platform and single-window consulting service providing incentives for young farmers to enhance theirs management, planning and innovation ability. • Reinforcing training and counseling to new generation fishery operators: strengthening fishing boat crew and various categories of officers training to reinforce fishing boats (fishers) offshore safety. Keeping reward people working on fishing boats and cultivate the talent thereof.
2. Combining with industry to promote the development of rural regeneration program in order to improve the agricultural production environment and improve rural peoples’ life. • Promoting rural regeneration Program: strengthening the bacon programs to help rural areas based on their respective rejuvenation program resource characters and requirements of promoting rural regeneration program and establish cross-border cooperation to promote rural regeneration regeneration, strengthening the integration of industries, revitalizing rural communities, industries, and improving their live, production and ecological environment, to establish a new rural lifestyle. • Establishing agricultural production areas: providing production and marketing facilities near to the products production sites, introducing norms to agri-business and reinforcement of the group cultivation as well as import fine varieties and new advanced technology to achieve both the goals of a competitive agricultural industries and living environment synchronization. • Creating opportunities for cooperation alliance: assisting local governments, area fishermen, aquaculture production area, production and marketing classes and fishing communities to improve their business management skill. Developing fishery products with fishing village character, as well as fishing industry personnel training, which include women and youth fishing skills training, in order to create more income from fishing to facilitate the economic restructuring of fishing village.
(3) Ensuring food security, enhancing agricultural products safety.
1. Improving domestic food self-sufficiency rate, constructing integrated food security mechanism • Developing food production diversification: increasing domestic self-sufficiency in food and feed rates, and encouraging domestic food and processing industry using local produced raw materials. • Food security classification management system: the construction of modern warehouse management system to maintain a high standard of government rice stocks quality and market this bulk grain stock. In addition, to protect sources and distribute food of imports, we create food safety nets to comply with APEC emergency food reserve mechanism.
2. In harmony with "transfer of industry characteristics," to promote the refinement of traditional agricultural industries, and promoting local brand characteristics • Promoting the combination of origin characteristics of traditional industries: shaping the image of Taiwan's agricultural boutique and regional characteristics of agricultural brand value by means of the cultural and creative, aesthetic arts and leisure travel. Counseling industry groups to help them conduct cultural activities and development of local industrial specialty products and lastly, promote industrial refinement and local brands to sell their products. • Developing diversified use of counseling and innovation packaging: providing consumers with stylish and unique in the ground quality, safe and healthy agricultural products and develop diversified products to open up new markets. • Refined tea industry: encouraging production with traceability and origin marks of quality for domestic tea products, developing environmentally friendly and creative tea gift package with art and culture of tea, shaping the quality image of "Taiwan tea". • Promoting efficient high-value livestock production systems: helping farmers to rationalize operations and optimal production quantity of livestock and poultry; continuing to promote the raising of poultry deed and helping producers to build or change the current closed production birdhouse building, establishing the safety by quarantine poultry production homes and so on.
3. Promoting the production and consumption of agricultural products in the production site as well as diversify marketing channels. • Developing new requirements on the local produced raw materials ingredients: Based on both the agricultural production and its origin, are features of seasonal fresh agricultural products, developing their diversified uses. • Marketing these local produced products for local consumers to consume these products in the local market: Combining theme of agro-tourism and rural cuisine, handling cross-regional integrated planning and construction activities "on the ground to enjoy fresh culinary map." , helping farmer groups directly supply to discount stores and supermarket chains such as marketing channels, to establish a direct marketing system and setting internet marketing platform that provides individuals, businesses, government agencies and organizations, to order high-quality agricultural products, and at the beginning, promote the themed marketing activities to increase consumer to accept the domestic produced agricultural products. • Promoting dietary education: to encourage people to increase domestic agricultural products consumption; regarding younger generation, help cooperative farmers' groups to conduct dietary teaching, and in conjunction with the Ministry of Education to promote the country, the primary dietary education, encourage pupils to eat group meals with domestic made products and grains to improve the people’s health.
4. Promoting rationalization of fertilizer with a friendly business model, to create low-carbon green energy environment farming • Assisting farmers in rationalizing fertilization use: with agricultural research and extension stations of COA compose of rationalization fertilization counseling group, to promote education in rational fertilization use. Meanwhile, reinforcing fertilizer quality inspection work to strengthen its quantity management, and improving manure production. • Promoting carbon reduction, pollution prevention and reuse of livestock: promoting farm water-saving conservation and carbon reduction and improve pollution hotspots farm effluent quality counseling. Producing quality compost, and strengthen the management of livestock and poultry corpses.
5. Promoting the safety of agricultural products production system • Promoting multiple recognized certification system: continue to promote GAP, CAS,, organic agriculture, products and its related products ’ with traceability system and strengthen the verification and certification bodies to enhance testing products and labeling work to produce safety products to protect the health of consumers. • Promoting and establishing regional specialty and value-added livestock marketing system: enhancing the safe production processes, strengthening domestic brand products’ marketing, and segregating the market segmentation with the imported products so the consumers understand the difference between these two products.
6. Improving animal and plant health inspection and quarantine work and enhancing the inspection frequency. • Sounding adjustment of FMD prevention measures: promote and enhance the use of FMD vaccine coverage for its prevention effectiveness evaluation, in order to establish the basis for the fight against FMD. • Strengthening animal disease detection, warning: for epidemic reporting and timely to promote the prevention and control work timely and improve the quality and management of veterinary drugs, preclude from diseases.
7. Pesticides and animal drug safety inspection with the same standard of the other countries of the world. • Strengthening agricultural pesticide residue detection technology development and the integration of surveillance systems: applying biochemical rapid test method as well as chemical testing method; strengthening the field, wholesale markets in the loading dock pesticide residue monitoring approach. And, also delayed harvest help farmers prevent from reaching the market, If the pesticide residues over the tolerate standard during fruit and vegetable market monitoring system, meanwhile set up the “fruit and vegetable pesticide residue testing approach processing guidelines” and “fruits and vegetables pesticide residue biochemical tests station”, to conduct the correct medication lecture and prosecution thereof to the cases of violation. • Monitoring and handling unlisted farmed fish production: monitoring the drug (veterinary medicines and pesticides), dye residues, heavy metals etc., to ensure consumers the fish safety.
(4) Reactivating agricultural resources, maintaining ecological sustainability
1. Adjusting farming systems, promoting diversified food production • Strengthening the promotion of the continuous fallow reactivation: producing award will replace fallow subsidies to encourage fallow land to replant, and with the promotion of afforestation and ecological cultivation of short-term crops can maintain the agricultural production potential. • Encouraging the fallow farmland divertive uses: to encourage crop rotation with local characteristics of the crops; reward deed for growing feed corn, non-genetically modified soybeans (such as black beans), pasture and forage corn and other feed and forage as well as other import substitution crops. In this way, it is also anticipate raising domestic food self-sufficiency rate.
2. Strengthen the preservation of agricultural land, and promoting the agricultural farmland use more effectively. • Agricultural land resource spatial planning and investigation: the project will assist municipalities and county governments to understand farmland classification and grading of agricultural development areas designate to collect geological agricultural information in order to plan long-term agricultural land utilization system. • Maintaining good agricultural land resources: involving cross-departmental responsibilities agencies to assist local governments to strengthen the regulation management of agricultural land. To fix for "agricultural land built farmhouse administration regulation, "COA will continue to work with the Ministry of the Interior in revising the law for it cope with social requirement.
3. Promoting rational planning of agricultural water quality: • Promoting dry land promote plant crops: the Taiwan high-speed rail go along with the more serious land subsidence area, we work out the following ways to deal with this: by the integration of government resources, the import of innovation technology, the development of new business models, promote water-saving, energy-saving and high economic value of agricultural products, stimulate vitality of rural development and improve rural economy, while reducing agricultural water demand, in order to save land subsidence problem smoothly. • Efficiently planning of agricultural water: regarding water planning, enhancing water conservation measures, and putting water distribution . Regulation and storage facilities in place, construct suitable land, water, and energy management systems, and build irrigation and water conservancy facilities. In cross-regional water resource management and deployment model, taking into consideration of the crop, estimate, regional food production, to allocating agricultural water rights. With respect to maintenance of water quality, we establish irrigation water quality monitoring, early warning and emergency response mechanism. Using digitized technology to water management system in order to promote actions of irrigation management and operating environment as well; in addition, promoting paddy ecological maintenance, increasing paddy flood water storage and other functions to enhance the resilience of drought water logging.
4. Improving and updating irrigation facilities: improving and updating irrigation and water conservancy facilities, try using ecological engineering remediation of farmland drainage; continue offering agricultural land readjustment projects, and study in order to promote with rural renewal and farmhouse by setting the village of overall planning of farm lands; improves early land zoned agricultural water update ; improving rain fed irrigation and modern management facilities; building irrigation and drainage channels and irrigation water quality monitoring and management survey facilities.
5. Strengthening the conservation of fishery resources, leading this industry development sustainable • In harmony with the environment to promote aquaculture: improving public facilities of aquaculture production areas, and stabilizing to provide clean water to this area to improve their farming environment. At the same time, continuously handling onshore production areas and marine aquaculture farming district construction and the expansion of sea water supply facilities and refurbishment of onshore and offshore aquaculture fisheries areas’ public facilities. • Strengthening the conservation of coastal and offshore fisheries resources: accelerating recovery and sustainable use of fisheries resources; controlling the number of fishing operating vessels; moderating reduction in marine fisheries and promote high-quality fisheries production environment; designated the domestic "marine protected areas" and strengthen management by enforcement of the current law; establishing fish zone classification and fishing operations control as well as strengthen public awareness of the concept of the importance of conservation of marine fishery resources. • (3) Participating in conservation of international fishery resources cooperation: the government continues to participate in the three oceans international fisheries management organizations; strengthening marine resource assessment studies for allocation of catch quotas rights, and strengthen bilateral fisheries cooperation and fulfill international obligations as well as develop the fishing industry with different countries and cooperate with the international fisheries management practices; continuing to implement vessel monitoring (MCS) measures; preventing and punishing illegal fishing . Accelerating replacement of old vessels to energy saving ship to cope with the high oil prices and maintain the international competitiveness of the catching fishery industry.
6. Strengthening afforestation: strengthening reforestation and restoration of degraded coastal woodland forest by emphasizing its maintenance of its healthy natural ecosystems. Rewarding hillside and plains afforestation; providing reforestation incentives and the use of direct payments to willing farmers to follow the land improve participation in reforestation and the works of forest maintenance and management in order to use the forest use sustainably.
7. Establishing forest and sustainable development of natural resources • Woodland management and sustainable forest management: Establishing a national monitoring system of forest resources and historic culture preservation in Taiwan, (which include off-shore island and the outer islands) of the country, and conducting the public and private forest resources survey to grasp forest growth dynamics data; strengthening forestry cultural preservation and maintenance and promotion; strengthening rental land management; enforcing forest patrol, using national forest resources protection tube to prevent forest fires and illegal logging to avoid, overgrazing and other illegal forest violation cases occurred; applying forest certification work in the future. • Maintaining natural ecosystems: the completion of national protected area systems and business management planning, periodically assess the effectiveness of nature reserve management domain; sustainable use of biological resources development norms; promote our natural heritage by putting on the United Nations World Heritage List; promote biodiversity education, training and public participation; treated the animals released and invasive species on native ecosystems hazards; promote the transition to land subsidence area of wetland ecological park management demonstration. In addition, to promote nature education, strengthen forest recreation area and to build educational public service facilities, renovation and maintain of the natural trail system and to promote nature education center as well as to set up and operate flat land refurbishment forest park.
8. Strengthening animal protection and, implementing pet management: Enhancing law enforcement intensity and frequency of inspection, registration and marketing and to enhance pet sterilization to reduce the stray cat, strengthening public animal shelters and quality thereof; promoting economic animal humane treatment and well management of laboratory animals.
9. Promoting holistic watershed conservation and disaster prevention: Strengthening watershed sediment disaster management with software combines hardware information technology and mitigation; strengthening local voluntary disaster prevention capabilities; integrating advanced technologies to enhance landslide warning system; hillside monitoring and management, and promoting "preventive management" and localize the "self-management" policies, and providing technical guidance to the public soil and water conservation consulting services. Accelerating the overall state-owned forests, watershed conservation; developing the disaster prevention technology, forest road maintenance, and increasing the function of water conservation forests.
(5) Strengthening farmers' organizations to take care of the well-being of farmers
1. Taking care of farmers’ life: By providing agricultural natural disaster relief, remedy of whom affected by implementation of WTO agricultural agreement, subsiding fishing boats oil, guaranteed purchasing system that rewards the fishing moratorium, and the subsidy of allowances to farmers and fishermen children schooling expenses.
2. Planning farmer income support measures, agricultural insurance and so on • Planning policy of agricultural income support system: COA will adapted this policy by gradually transferring conversion of the existing subsidies for green measures to comply with WTO direct payment regulation. • Planning agricultural insurance: To ensure the stability of agricultural operations and improve farmers' risk management capabilities, COA will select a specific agricultural products or agricultural facilities planning to establish agricultural insurance system in order to reduce the farmer’s risk from natural disasters. • Planning vessels insurance: planning "incentive insurance scheme for all power boats," and promoting the adjustment of fishing vessel insurance and subsidy system to ensure that fishing operations at sea reduce their risks by encouraging small fishing boats (rafts) actively insured, and promote local governments and urge fishermen at all levels to work jointly to promote public awareness of the importance of fishery industry.
3. Strengthening farmer’s organizations’ operating efficiency and service functions: the National Farmers' Association and the National Fishermen's Association were established and they are anticipated to improve their operating efficiency. Upon completion of farmers' education session after the election, they will continue to cultivate their high-quality human talent to improve the quality of their personnel expertise to operate effectively to improve the services to their members.
4. Improving the agricultural financial system • Promoting jointly use of agricultural and fishery information: establishing agricultural and fishery information sharing platform to integrate farmers’ and fishermen sharing information of which will play an important role in the national farmers' and fishermen's associations to increase their overall service. • Sounding credit departments of farmer’s financial system: Urging the National Agricultural Bank credit departments continue to promote the business integration, to develop the credit departments of farmers association playing a synergy pathway. Continuing to promote policy-oriented agricultural project loans and measures to improve agricultural credit performance as well.