1. Innovation in agricultural research and development

To strengthen Taiwan's sustainable competitiveness in agriculture, the government has placed a great emphasis on R&D in agricultural science and technology. Some of the significant achievements are as follows: 1) breeding of all hermaphrodite or bisexual papaya trees to ensure uniformity of quality products; 2) technology development for the utilization of tabasheer (the silicaceous inner part of the bamboo) and the manufacturing of bamboo charcoal to increase economic values of forest products; 3) breeding and multiplication of various aquatic fry to maintain Taiwan's leading role in aquaculture; 4) establishment of cattle and goat sex diagnostic techniques to increase female progenies and to gain profits for the dairy farmers; 5) establishment of six core facilities with international biosafety standards for the evaluation of genetically modified organisms; and 6) development of diagnostic kits for animal and plant diseases to ensure product quality and increase competitiveness.

To fully take advantages of the aforementioned research outputs, the second agro-technology fair and forum was held in the year, in which 93 premium technologies and products were exhibited. In the same vein, the COA had participated in Bio Taiwan 2006 and 2006 Taipei International Invention Show and Technomart. To commercialize promising research outputs generated by the COA's nine affiliated research institutes, ten outstanding research outputs were selected and slated for the development of entrepreneurship. The intensive master-degree program on agricultural business, which addresses new technology, result-based management and protection of intellectual property rights, continues to attract students. More than two-third of the current students are from the agri-business sector. The program likely will speed up enterprising agricultural technologies as parts of the knowledge-based economy.

There are outstanding outputs from agricultural R&D in 2006. During the year, in addition to the aforementioned achievements, there were 15 released varieties and types of animals and plants, 31 domestic and international patent rights, as well as 79 technology transfers. The latter has netted NT$32.5 million. That's a twofold increase from the previous year.

2. Science-based agro-food industry

To move Taiwan forward as one of the leading countries in agro-biotechnology in the Asia-Pacific region, the COA has facilitated in establishing five agro-biotechnology parks. Pingtung Agricultural Biotechnology Park in southern tip of Taiwan has completed its basic infrastructure for 233 hectares of land area and inaugurated on 13 December 2006. Until the end of 2006, 42 corporations have received permissions to operate in the park. Their total investment is NT$1.86 billion; five of them are installing their facilities. Taiwan Orchid Plantation in Tainan County has completed the first phase of construction of infrastructure, service center, exhibition hall, etc. Twenty nine corporations have received permissions to operate in the park, which will fully utilize its 23-hectare site. At present, 10 of them are in operation. The National Flower Park in Changhua County has completed its construction of exhibition greenhouses, and outsourcing for its operation. It also has completed 22 satellite production demonstration sites, and the first phase of the 53-hectare site specifically designed for ornamental plants. It is expected the whole construction of the park will be completed in 2007. The Chiayi County government has signed the build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract for the Herbal and Medicinal Plant Park on 13 January 2006. With this contract, the construction of infrastructure was initiated on 30 June 2006. By the end of 2006, 90% of the infrastructure construction was completed, and two corporations have received the governmental approvals to operate in this park. The Yilan County government is also in the process of establishing a marine biotechnology park in the county.

On 29 September 2006, the COA promulgated the regulation governing the assistance for agri-businesses to advance their R&D capacity, which will be implemented in 2007. This is to encourage the agri-businesses to invest in R&D, to enterprise their research outputs, and to profit from intellectual property rights, as well as to speed up the entrepreneurship of agricultural technology.

3. E-business for agricultural production and marketing

1) To ensure safe meat products, increase their market-values, and improve the profit for the livestock farmers, the COA started to implement the "RFID-based program on the production and marketing management system, value-chain accruement, and tracking of diseased and dead pigs" in the year. This radio-frequency identification system is being employed to establish the retrievable database on the automation of pig feeding, and the generic "hazard analysis and critical control points" (HACCP) scheme as a systematic preventive approach to food safety. It is a no-hassle livestock tracking system for consumers to access on-line information on the breeding and feeding process, and quarantine procedure.

2) To expand the value of implementing agri-product traceability system in the international market, the COA has constructed a website in Japanese language (http://taftj.coa.gov.tw ). This site allows Japanese consumers to access the resumes of indexed agri-products, and to trace the status of Taiwanese agro-food industries and systems, production profiles, etc. On the other hand, the system enables Taiwanese producers to market their products in Japan. To help farmers to have a better grip of the traceability system, Hualien and Tainan District Agricultural Research and Extension Stations (DARES) have conducted various training classes in different locations. In addition, Taichung DARES has established the product traceability system for grapes, and set up microclimate stations in the experimental field. This integrated system enables the consumers to access a distance observation of grape production.

3) The basic coding system was constructed for Taiwanese agri-products. RFID is being applied in Kaohsiung International Flower Co. Ltd., specifically for vertical flower container, bar-coded-based supply and management of products. This has increased the efficiency and precision on the management of goods.

4) Taichung DARES has established virtual-image Phalaenopsis market system in the two private orchid farms, Taida Horticultural Co., Ltd. and Sunny & Kelly Orchid, in Changhua County. This allows the long-distance buyers, including overseas buyers, to view the actual production operations. Because of this new system, the clients have increased by 20% in the past year.

5) Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) has conducted soil surveys in major agricultural production sites, and established soil databases on the soil characteristics of these sites. TARI, in collaboration with different DARES, has also conducted 11 workshops to train farmers on the proper concept of fertilization.

4. Upgrading of agriculture and livestock industries

1) The development of horticultural industry: Established 4,183 hectares of high standard orchards for mango, pineapple, banana, lychee, papaya, citrus, grape, guava, star fruit, soursop, wax apple, and jujube. Accepted 83 applications for variety registration, and approved 50 applications. The effort was for a renewal of varieties and for this sub-sector to be competitive.

2) The development of grain and specialty crop industry: Set up 290 hectares of demonstration fields for the integrated value-chain production, 60 hectares of production fields for product traceability, and 50 hectares of Grade III seedbed for the production of quality peanut seeds. In addition, toward the safe production of quality tea products, the monitoring system for quality control was established through a joint effort of the producers and the processors. There are 1,483 tea farm households with 1,750 hectares of tea farm area, and 141 tea processing plants engaged in this system.

3) The selection of eight elite wineries and six quality wine products: Developed and transferred health-promoting purple rice pastry and golden grape wine making technologies to the interested producers.

4) The 26 pilot pig farms employing new technologies have improved 10-15% survival rate of piglets. In relation to the swine herd improvement, 3,550 heads with quality meat gene have been selected, 1,018 heads with porcine stress gene screened, and 320,000 doses of semen supplied. The integrated production and supply systems were set up for white-hair pigs in two sites, and for black-hair pigs in six sites. This allows further expansion of the marketing channel. The dairy herd improvement program was also implemented to improve dairy cows for efficient milk production with reduced cost. Existing deer farms were evaluated for their potentials to develop as full-fledged, quality farms.

5) Twenty slaughterhouses set up their voluntary checking systems to test drug residues before slaughtering. As for white broiler, 98% were free from drug residues. In accordance with the policy of prohibiting poultry slaughtering in the traditional retail market, the COA has promulgated the "guidance on the application of subsidy assistance in establishing poultry slaughterhouses," and approved 12 poultry slaughterhouses’ applications for a change of land use.

5. Internationalization and transformation of fishery

1) Efforts have been taken to enhance responsible deep-sea fishing in accordance with internationally adopted resolutions and recommendations. Thus, a pertinent action plan was formulated. Vessels buy-back programs were implemented to reduce the fleet size, with the view of downsizing the scale of fishing operation, reducing the fishing efforts, and restoring the fishing resources. Fishermen have been encouraged to exercise measures of fishing closures with provisions of premium compensation. These programs have resulted in a reduction of 101 tuna longliners and 270 other fishing vessels. Moreover, the vessel monitoring system, which incorporates geographic position system (GPS) and high frequency single side band radio, has been installed in 1,945 vessels. This enables the administering agency to carry out real-time monitoring of the vessel activities at sea. Because of the above significant achievements, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) at its 15 ^th special meeting in November 2006 has renewed Taiwan's membership status as a cooperating non-contracting party of ICCAT and resumed the total allowable catch of bigeye tuna for Taiwan to the previous quota at 14,900 tons. Taiwan also participates in various regional fishery organizations in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and fully engages in their decision-making processes.

2) Efforts have been taken to restore coastal fishing resources. Environment-friendly coastal fisheries were enforced. Fishing of endangered species such as larval anchovy, coral, flying fish roe, and whale shark is being prohibited in a stepwise mode, and vulnerable fishing environments are fully protected. Various types of artificial fish reefs, in a total of 250,000 cubic meters, have been launched, and 10 million of grouper fry released. To achieve sustainable aquaculture and to ensure its harmony with the environment, the technology of recycling water in aquaculture has been extended to 48 aquaculture sites. To ensure quality aquaculture products, the COA has set up a total of 210 hectares of demonstrative aquaculture in five sites in Tainan and Yunlin counties, and conducted related training courses. To ensure the safety of crew and their fishing vessels, the COA has established the standard operation procedure for fishery, and cooperated with the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) to prevent marine distress. The price-reduced vessel fuel is rationed in accordance with the actual travel distance at sea. This is to ensure fairness to all fishing vessel owners. Moreover, to prevent abuse of the price-reduced vessel fuel, random checks have caught 135 cases of abuse with a total of 1.08 million kiloliters of fuel.