In order to  exhibit the achievements in guidance of young farmers, on September 23 the Council of Agriculture (COA) held the graduation certification awarding ceremony for 4th Top 100 Young Farmers and the National Young Farmers Sports Competition in the Dongshan River Water Park in Yilan. We invited young farmers from across Taiwan to participate in the grand event and demonstrate the vitality of youthful farmers. COA Minister Chen Chi-chung personally came to the event in the morning to encourage young farmers, and he handed out completion-of-guidance certifications to the 4th Top 100 Young Farmers and thanked the guidance teams. He expressed his hope that young farmers would use outstanding operations to lead the way in sustainable agricultural development, and he lit the torch of victory for the National Young Farmers Sports Competition.

Setting up benchmarks, brilliant results from two-year guidance program for the Top 100 Young Farmers

The COA states that the New Farmers Program that it promotes works from both the school and workplace ends and integrates the guidance resources of industry, government, and academia with the goal of training 30,000 people over 10 years who will enter agricultural professions. Since 2013 the COA has been selecting young farmers with potential for development and giving them two years of individualized accompanied guidance and three years of follow-up guidance. Thus far it has guided five classes totaling 589 people. The hope is that the Top 100 Young Farmers from over the years will become benchmarks and models, and will lead the way to collective prosperity for other farmers.

The COA explains that the 4th Top 100 Young Farmers, with a total of 147 people (116 men and 31 women), have already completed their two years of individualized accompanied guidance. Their average age is 34. A total of 395 agricultural products that they produce have received “Three Labels and One QR Code” certification, with 156 items earning organic labels. Having completed the guidance program, there has already been clear growth in terms of both quantity and quality, including expanded scale of operations and industrial upgrading. After guidance, the area operated by the 4th Top 100 Young Farmers increased by 202 hectares; the space devoted to transportation, marketing, and processing of agricultural products increased by 15,815 square meters (including venues for processing, product concentration and distribution, and logistics); income from development of sales channels increased by NT$223.97 million; and revenues for the year totaled NT$745.77 million, an overall increase of 43% in revenues. These numbers illustrate the accomplishments of guidance to the current stage, and from here on the COA will undertake three years of follow-up guidance.

Local partners, strengthening local guidance capacity

The COA points out that besides guidance for the Top 100 Young Farmers, in terms of national guidance the COA has established platforms for interactions between local young farmers, building an environment conducive to exchanges, mutual learning, mutual assistance, and cooperation. At present there are already 17 city and county level and 192 township level local young farmers’ platforms, encouraging young farmers to interact and work together. The COA has also provided young farmers with needed guidance resources through the technical experts at its District Agricultural Research and Extension Stations, local teachers, and the extension personnel at Farmers’ Associations. The COA also expresses its most sincere gratitude to all the teams that have guided young farmers.

This year’s National Young Farmers Sports Competition brought together representatives of local young farmers’ friendship associations from cities and counties across Taiwan as well as the new generation of agricultural manpower. Team activities for young farmers help build consensus among young farmers in each locality, and team cooperation in pursuit of the highest honors demonstrates unity and vitality in the agricultural sector.