998View
3m 45sLenght
3Rating

Mention food and most Asians will immediately think of rice. The staple diet of the region is grown in paddy fields, which need lots of water. Every day, Taiwan's farmers use 11.13 billion tons of water, which comes from rivers, reservoirs, the surface and underground. Taiwan's Council of Agriculture subsidizes farmers 2.22 billion NT dollars a year to help pay for irrigation costs. In the third segment of our continuing series of feature reports on food policy in Taiwan, we go to the nation's rice basket, Changhua County, to find out more. ( Productive fields of Erlin, Changhua ) " Is there a drought this year? " " Yes, this is pumping groundwater. Is it more serious this year? " " Yes, we're irrigating in rotation here. " Changhua's Erlin Township has 2,800 hectares of rice paddies. At 8,000 catties a hectare this is the most productive farmland in Taiwan. ( Pumping groundwater during drought ) But the drainage system, built in the Qing Dynasty, cannot cope with households, farms and factories that pour sewage directly into the river; and rice growers have to look elsewhere for water. Farmland water conservation committee, Cai Zongting : " If it was used for irrigation, not even the farmers would want to eat what they grow. " Erlin Township farmer, Wang Chuannan : " It costs 100-200,000 to drill a well. Farmers only get an income of a few 1,000 dollars on a plot of land, so when will you be able to pay back 200,000? " " Do they mean the irrigation hasn't been fixed, but the sewage has? " " Neither! " This looks like cement. " " That cement is new. It's for sewage. " Erlin Township farmer, Cai Zhang : " In the farm fields, irrigation and sewage are two big problems. If you stop using it for irrigation, the farmers have to find a way, by digging their own wells, to get water. " Farmland water conservation committee, Cai Zongting : " The money the government throws at stopping land subsidence, would be better spent on a few facilities, to encourage farmers not to pump groundwater, and say: I can give you water if you don't pump. " ( Local farmers need water ) Although the issues of food security and food miles are high on the political agenda, local farmers complain that the government has forgotten their basic needs. Farmland water conservation committee, Cai Zongting : " The government should be thinking about how to store water, not telling everyone to stop using water, but how to properly use water resources. " ( Added value of agriculture ) The experts say agriculture has a value beyond its contribution to the economy. NTU Department of Agriculture, Prof. Lin Guoqing : " If you only see farm produce as a product, you could make the Council of Agriculture a bureau of the Ministry of Economics, because the gross value of farming is only 400 billion NT dollars, it's net value is only 200 billion. That's less than the Foxconn company. " Erlin Township coordinator, Cai Shijie : " Agriculture stores water, creates photosynthesis to produce oxygen, cleans the air, and even retains water and soil. That's all part of the value of farming, that you can't calculate. " ( Farming and food security ) In light of the implications for the environment and global warming, perhaps we should be taking a broader look at the issue of food security.