To strengthen Taiwan's sustainable competitiveness in agriculture, the government has placed great emphasis on research and development (R&D) in agricultural science and technology. Some of the significant achievements are as follows:

1. Breeding of new lychee varieties to prolong the harvesting period.
2. Development of a non-destructive method for new checking the sugar content in agri-products.
3. Establishment of a transnational eco-environmental monitoring system for effective forest resources management.
4. Development of several grouper fry hatching techniques and artificial feed formulations.
5. Breeding of mini-pigs for bio-medical research.
6. Establishment of core facilities with international biosafety standards for the evaluation of genetically modified organisms.
7. Development of rapid diagnostic kits for animal and plant diseases.
8. Development of vaccines for viral diseases in aquaculture.
9. Development of drug-free aquacultural techniques.

The government aspires to create a diversified, sustainable, knowledge-based economy. Toward this goal, the COA has set up a system for regulating intellectual property rights in agriculture. It is to translate a long record of innovations in research and production directly into commercialization as part of the drive towards a knowledge-based economy. During the year, the endeavor included the inventory, value-adding and packaging of research outputs; improvement of management systems for intellectual property rights; training of interdisciplinary leaders in agriculture; exhibitions of innovative technologies; and establishment of an office specializing in promoting businesses base upon agricultural science and technology. In 2007, 85 cases of commercial technology transfer were completed, and 31 crop variety rights approved, which are significant leaps from the past five years. The cases netted NT$47.250 million, a 40 percent increase over the previous year or a 3.7-time increase over the average of the recent five years.