Minister of Agriculture Chen Junne-jih and Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung held a meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) on March 24 at which they agreed to form a “new smart agriculture advisory team.” It will bring together public and private resources from the government, industry, academia, and the agricultural private sector, for the purpose of cooperation with allied and friendly countries in areas including precision agriculture, agricultural climate forecasting, aquaculture, agricultural industrial supply chains, and logistics. The aims will be to upgrade the effectiveness of agricultural production and promote food security in these countries, as well as to discover mutually beneficial commercial opportunities for agricultural industries, assist Taiwan agribusinesses to develop overseas markets, and train young farmers and new smart agriculture personnel bilaterally to enhance competitiveness.

Minister Chen stated that from the foreign aid provided by the Agricultural Technical Mission in the past to the current establishment of overseas demonstration areas, the MOA and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) have been collaborative partners for a long time, and jointly promoting Taiwan's diplomatic soft power to the world. In the face of the challenge of climate change and trade globalization, Taiwan must develop new thinking and new strategies to transform its agricultural cooperation model with allied and friendly countries. It must redefine interactions with other countries as an extension of domestic production bases and build mutually beneficial cooperation mechanisms in order to create a win-win situation for both parties.

Minister Chen explained that he strongly supported MOFA’s proposal to form the “new smart agriculture advisory team.” He noted that Taiwan should, on the foundation of this advisory team, establish consulting teams and groups of experts to form different working groups based on different industrial needs of other countries in order to precisely meet their needs. He added that “farmers’ academies” can be set up in other countries to provide a regular channel for exchanges of bilateral agricultural knowledge and implement the goal of agricultural sustainability.

Minister Lin stated that the promotion of the Diplomatic Allies Prosperity Project includes eight flagship projects including “semiconductor supply chain resilience,” all of which involve industries that Taiwan can be proud of and that deserve to be promoted to the international community, of which one is “new smart agriculture.” With the exacerbation of climate change the whole world has become concerned about the issue of food security and there has been an emphasis on the promotion of “smart total solutions” for agricultural development. The new smart agriculture project envisions taking advantage of the expert evaluation and technological skills of the MOA in order to provide countries allied with or friendly to Taiwan with customized smart total solutions for agriculture, based on the three pillars of “technology, skilled manpower, and capital.” The project will be guided by the foreign aid program and through various strategies including “public-private collaboration, the guiding of small businesses by large companies, equal emphasis on software and hardware, and domestic and international circularity,” it will assist Taiwan businesses to expand into local markets and promote the grassroots implementation of Taiwan’s new smart agriculture overseas.

Agriculture is the foundation of Taiwan’s economy and food security, and for years now the MOA has guided Taiwan agribusinesses to introduce smart applications, increase industrial value-added, and develop smart alliances. MOFA Minister Lin said that the two ministries will draw on the spirit of “integrated diplomacy” to promote the “new smart agriculture advisory team” under the “Diplomatic Allies Prosperity Project.” MOFA, alongside the MOA, will drive agricultural transformations, smart technology introduction into agriculture, and sustainable development. They will create combined forces to promote new smart agriculture, assist Taiwan companies to expand outward from Taiwan into the international community, strengthen global food security, enhance agricultural sustainability and resilience, and take on the challenges of extreme weather, digital transformation, and net-zero carbon emissions.

In the future, the MOA and MOFA will continue to work hand-in-hand with partners from all interested sectors of society and assist allied and friendly countries to introduce smart agriculture technology to enhance food security, implement sustainable development, and promote mutual prosperity and the common good. Based on President Lai Ching-te’s vision of sustainable resilience, the two ministries will contribute even more effort to global agricultural development and food security, as well as jointly promote efforts by Taiwan agribusinesses to establish or expand their international presence to realize the goal of building “an economy on which the sun never sets” in Taiwan.