The Council of Agriculture celebrated the 15^th anniversary of the AGTECH Program today, which was initiated in 2006 with the purpose of raising agricultural competitiveness and integrating all agricultural R&D resources. The government has poured more than NTD 1.25 billion into the program so far, which saw the completion of 164 projects, produced 123 patents and 320 new products till 2019. Citing Industrial AGTECH Program as an example, there is NTD 1.49 worth of direct investment per each NTD the government subsidized, which in turn created a production value of NTD 6.12. The record shows an accumulated amount NTD 1.8 billion over the years. The COA invites the public to visit the Agricultural Technology Pavilion at BIO Asia-Taiwan 2020 located on the 4^th floor of the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 2, between July 23 to 26, where visitors can find on display new wheat cultivars Taichung 35 and Taichung 36, all natural food coloring, information integration platform for smart agriculture, and AI-enhanced agricultural drone among other exhibits. Moreover, since its inception in 2017, the AGTECH Program Innovative R&D Alliance Program has produced 3 completed projects until the program’s closure at the end of 2019, which will be presented on the 3rd floor of the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1 on July 24 at 10 A.M. organized by Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER). (To attend the presentation please register on-line at: https://pse.is/TXWC2)

The force behind agricultural upgrade and transition: AGTECH Innovative R&D Alliance Program

The COA stated that the Agricultural Industry AGTECH  Innovative R&D Alliance Program was launched in 2017 to encourage the formation of a vertical, horizontal, or inter-disciplinary Innovative R&D Alliance comprised of relevant enterprises in order to consolidate upstream, midstream, downstream, or inter-disciplinary industrial strength. The 3 projects that has successfully completed under the program at the end of 2019 are： Automatic Poultry Cutting and Food Safety Monitoring Technology, Smart Parboiled Rice Production Line and Diversified Product Development, and Smart Production of Taiwan Sweet Corn and Quality Classification. The COA fostered the cooperation between alliance members and other companies, which produced 2 patents, 9 original technologies, and 21 new products. The program also instigated NTD 34.975 million worth of investment from enterprises, raised NTD 35.276 million worth of production value, lowered NTD 10 million in cost, established 2 new business operations, inked production contract equivalent to 550 hectares with farmers, procured 670 metric tons of produce, thus securing farmers' revenue among other achievements. As relevant enterprises have already engaged in talks for international and domestic partnerships.

The aforementioned Alliance Program presentation will invite program key participants YCJ Foods, Chin Ying Fa Mechanical Ind., Great Agri Technology, and other 7 companies (SmartAgri Integration Service, CKF International, San-Shen Agricultural Machinery Science and Technology, Sweetrice, Anytech Technology, Advantech, GEOSAT Aerospace & Technology) to share their experience. The COA hopes to encourage more enterprises to join the program and help Taiwan’s agriculture to improve further.

Encourage Industry and Academia to Boost R&D Intensity

The COA pointed out that the AGTECH Program has been running for 15 years. In the last 3 years the Council has been encouraging enterprises to jointly submit project proposals, which not only shortens R&D time but also allows companies to share the results and thus enjoy the commercial benefits from these new products. The COA further explained that the formation of the said R&D Alliance is not an easy one, since it involves complex elements such as assessment of joint R&D cost at the proposal stage, clarification of intellectual property attribution between partnering companies, ratio of the investment contributions and revenue distribution between parties, etc. The aim is to achieve a strong industrial cooperation alliance between R&D Alliance members through complementary technological exchange and market development.

In order to elevate Taiwan’s agricultural competitiveness, the COA will continue to promote the AGTECH Program, and to encourage all relevant sectors to work jointly in key technology R&D through interdisciplinary or cross-industry integration and cooperation.