The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), the Australian Office Taipei, and Nuffield International (NI) held the “Taiwan-Nuffield International Agricultural Dialogue and Networking” event on September 27. This activity marked the first time that the scholarship program of the Australian branch of NI, Nuffield Australia (NA), focused on researching the current situation of Taiwan’s agricultural sector. A 13-member international Nuffield delegation engaged in dialogue with outstanding farmers from Taiwan (including Top 10 National Farmers, Top 100 Young Farmers, Young Agricultural Ambassadors, and the National 4-H Club Association). The meeting linked Taiwan young farmers with an international network involving public-private collaboration and opened up new perspectives for Taiwan-Australia agricultural cooperation.

Ms Jodie Redcliffe, who is the CEO of both NI and NA, said that Nuffield’s aim is to cultivate leadership capabilities in talented young people in agriculture through education and networking, in order to deal with the long-term challenge of the sustainable development of global agriculture and food supply chains. This recent event in Taiwan focused on learning about Taiwan’s overall agricultural development, industrial competitive advantages and challenges, orientations in terms of sustainability and technological development, and current situation with respect to external trade in agriproducts and international cooperation. Ms. Redcliffe said she looks forward to the day when Taiwan agricultural experts join the ranks of Nuffield scholars to collectively take on the challenges of agricultural development worldwide, provide farmers with new international perspectives, enhance competitiveness of the agricultural sector, and inject new vitality into agriculture.

The MOA pointed out that Taiwan and Australia have worked for a long time to promote mutual public-private cooperative partnership relations. This most recent event linked Taiwan with a global agricultural networking organization, and it is hoped that by gaining an understanding of the impact that Nuffield, a non-profit organization, has on global agriculture, Taiwan can build a long-term channel for interactions with NI. On the one hand this can expand the international perspective of Taiwan young farmers, while on the other it is hoped that young farmers and agricultural experts from Taiwan can participate in the Nuffield network, so that outstanding professional farmers from Taiwan can work with colleagues worldwide to solve agricultural problems. Also, diverse international interactions will deepen links between representatives of Taiwan industries from a variety of fields with the global agricultural network and enable them to continue to develop emerging international markets.

In order to help the Nuffield delegation to better understand Taiwan’s farming, fisheries, and animal husbandry technology as well as R&D advances and strengthened supply chain linkages, the MOA specially arranged for the delegation to make on-site visits to public and private sector venues related to agriculture. With a focus on “sustainable agriculture and environmental protection,” “innovation in agricultural technology and its value-added applications,” and “agricultural diversity and resilience,” they visited the Taiwan Agricultural Research institute, the Wu-Feng Farmer’s Association Distillery, K.K. Orchard, Homoo Seafood, JJ Greenhouse, YesHealth iFarm, Tai-Yi Red Maple Resort, Dakeng Leisure Farm, and Yoshan Tea Culture Museum. The hope was to further promote exchanges on agricultural operations and management as well as generate commercial opportunities in agricultural trade.

A group photo at the “Taiwan-Nuffield International Agricultural Dialogue and Networking” event.

Young farmers from Taiwan and Nuffield International scholars exchanged ideas and experiences in areas including challenges to agriculture, differences in scale and forms of agriculture, and promotion of environmentally friendly agriproducts.

Enthusiastic representatives of Taiwan’s Top 100 Young Farmers and Young Agricultural Ambassadors participated in the Taiwan-Australia dialogue.