Promotion of “ enterprise-style management” in production and marketing groups

The COA has been helping to organize production and marketing groups (PMGs) for small family farms. With the aim of making the PMGs function better, we have conducted training activities to cultivate management and supervisory personnel, provided guidance in introducing enterprise-style management to PMGs, and provided advice and subsidies for their economic operations.

The COA has also been implementing a “diagnostic program” at demonstration PMGs. A total of 23 PMGs have been helped, including 13 for fruit, seven for vegetables, one for flowers, one for rice, and one for special crops. In addition, professional staff from farmers associations have conducted four basic-level classes and two advanced classes in enterprise-style management of PMGs, with a total of 106 persons finishing the training.

DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES

Attracting new manpower into agriculture

To help cultivate a new generation of farmers and strengthen their farm management skills, the COA provided training to 1,154 potential young farmers through agricultural experience camps, graduated levels of training in specific agro-industries, and professional training.We also arranged agricultural apprenticeships for 162 persons. Further, as part of encouraging young people to think about agriculture in non-traditional ways, we held nine advanced training classes, reaching 286 persons. There were also 80 classes in agricultural skills, reaching 2,635 persons and helping them upgrade their professional skills and operational efficiency.

Training of rural community-development personnel

A major COA objective is to train people who can lead development in their own local communities in line with the spirit of “bottom up” rejuvenation of rural areas. As of the end of December of 2010, we had provided training to a total of 63,622 persons in 1,212 communities. Our aim is to develop a cadre of people able to autonomously promote rural regeneration where they live, in order to ensure sustainability of rural lifestyles and communities, growth in their local economies, and protection of their local ecologies.

Closing the rural-urban digital gap

The COA aims to bring the benefits of information technology to rural dwellers by providing diversified online agricultural information that they can access at times of their own choosing. A total of 91 units of agriculture-related e-instructional materials have been developed, and an e-learning platform has been established. There have been 7,017 hits on the site, and 3,326 persons have opted to take e-courses, receiving instruction for a total of 2,911 hours.

Innovative development of rural communities

In 112 rural communities resources have been pooled to promote environmentally-sustainable development. Residents are encouraged to live environmentally-friendly lifestyles, bringing new vitality and purpose to their communities. In addition, a program was launched to develop local cultural resources (including live performances and art), for which a total of six seed courses and two special projects have been completed, training 457 people. Moreover, the COA has formed 15 guidance teams who have given 321 classes on identification and use of rural assets, cultural transmission, and development of the humanities at the local level. A total of 15,125 people have received instruction, and there have been 2,876 community events.

The COA also guided 178 township-level farmers associations in offering courses employing “green” resources to get young people involved in agriculture and rural cultural traditions. These included 491 workshops, 180 activities in which young people did public service, 85 study activities, 139 follow-up training activities, 167 lectures, and 185 exhibitions. There were also two sessions of youth leadership courses, four sessions of demonstrations of methods, six large conferences on technical exchanges, two crop competitions, and 44 rural summer camps, with total attendance of 151,647 persons.

CONSTRUCTION OF A SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR RURAL RESIDENTS

Helping rural women to improve their lives

The COA encourages rural women to participate in lifelong education programs, aiming to reduce the knowledge gap and increase their skills for daily life. In 2010 the COA guided 231 local-level farmers associations in holding 2304 classes in home economics. Subjects included: ways to use special local agricultural products; health and nutrition; home care; and carbon reduction. A total of 49,214 women participated. In addition, though conferences, demonstration events, contests, speeches given by individuals about their personal experiences, seminars, and lectures, the COA trained 257 home economics “seed teachers,” thereby creating more resources for further extending the program.

The COA also arranged training in home-care and home-management skills for 640 persons, increasing not only their personal homemaking abilities but also their possibilities for part-time work outside the home. Finally, prior to a major 2010 conference of national organizations for rural women, the COA held seminars to discuss five issues: (a) a specialized mechanism for pursuing gender equality; (b) the problem of personal safety; (c) education, culture, and the family; (d) power, decision-making, and influence; and (e) employment and social welfare. These issues were discussed in-depth in these seminars, which produced concrete policy proposals and action plans.

Giving rural seniors more learning opportunities

The COA held 150 classes in life improvement for seniors, serving 7,500 elderly. These classes aimed to improve the ability of seniors to manage their own health and lives, and inform them about concepts in preventive medicine and health maintenance. We also guided 26 farmers associations in resource-poor rural localities to open community service centers, and selected and trained 779 volunteers to staff them. These centers provided, on 8,893 occasions, visits to elderly living alone, care services, and responses to inquiries.

Also, in coordination with the “Small Landlords, Large Tenants” program, we (a) promoted a retirement system for farmers, counseling retired farmers and arranging for rural crafts transmission for 184 people in six townships; (b) guided farmers associations to create, in ten locations, specialized windows to help elderly farmers with financial planning; and (c) set up six demonstration households for safe and healthy living environments. The COA also guided 15 farmers associations in organizing creative activities for rural elders to stimulate creative thinking in combining traditional local rural specialties with creative new ideas, and also promoted healthy and participatory learning activities which affected 345 elderly people with an average age of 73.

Reorganizing and improving rural functional organizations

With the formation of new municipalities out of former cities and counties, and in view of plans for the establishment of a national farmers association, the COA prepared amendments to the Farmers Associations Act and sent these to the Executive Yuan for submission to the legislature. The proposed amendments will enable affected farmers associations (hereafter FAs) to change their names and logos, and also relate to hiring of staff, extension of terms of office, payment of taxes, and adjustment of the administrative status of affected FAs.

To meet the needs of FA operations and development, the COA completed amendments to (a) regulations governing evaluations for FAs and (b) regulations governing certification of status as a “farmer” for candidates for boards of directors or boards of supervisors of FAs.

The COA conducted an event to identify the “Top 100 Premium Agricultural Products of Farmers and Fishermen’s Associations,” and followed up with marketing and exhibition activities. We have guided these associations to work in the spirit of “rigorous standards, local production,” aiming to turn traditional local specialties into up-market high-quality consumer goods, thereby adding value to rural products. These efforts have so far created nearly NT$300 million in revenues for farmers and fishermen’s associations.

The COA provided guidance to 31 FAs in developing diversified enterprises, in developing and marketing new products, and in upgrading their service functions and competitiveness.

Several steps were taken to solve problems particular to fishermen’s associations. First, their required organizational structures have proven too inflexible, so the regulations governing their personnel were amended to deal with the problem of the proportions of technical and laboring staff. Second, a conference was held to discuss how the law might be changed in order to deal with legal issues raised in the 2009 fishermen’s association elections. Finally, fishermen’s associations were helped to economically diversify, develop and market new products, and upgrade their service functions and competitiveness.

With respect to Irrigation Associations (IAs), the COA, acting in accordance with the Irrigation Associations Organization Act, has begun to regularly monitor and guide their work and now undertakes annual reviews of operations at each IA. In order to reduce the financial burden on farmers, in 2010 the COA provided NT$2.229 billion in subsidies to IAs to keep 15 associations operating normally, and also provided funds to six other IAs with financial difficulties to solve their financial problems and get their operations renormalized. These measures were taken to protect the rights, interests, and welfare of farmers.

IMRPOVING THE FUNCTIONS OF THE RURAL FUNANCIAL SYSTEM

Improving services at rural financial institutions

To increase the quality and competitiveness of services provided by the credit departments of farmers' and fishermen’s associations (F/FAs), the COA assigned the Agriculture Bank of Taiwan (ABT) to integrate the operations and channels of 301 F/FAs (with a total of 1,154 credit departments) in order to expand service to the public. These credit departments now accept bill payments on behalf of other agencies and institutions, and by the end of 2010, there were over 60,000 such transactions totalling nearly NT$2.5 billion.

The COA continued to insist that the credit departments of F/FAs reduce their non-performing loans, increase their reserves against bad debt, and raise the quality of assets. The balance of deposits at credit departments of F/FAs was NT$1.5 trillion, while outstanding loans were NT$742.7 billion. Before-tax net profit was NT$3.5 billion. The non-performing loan ratio was 3.15%. The balance of deposits at the ABT was NT$620.2 billion, the balance of loans was NT$153.5 billion, and before-tax net profit was NT$1.609 billion. These results show that F/FAs and the ABT have continually improved their operations.

Making special-purpose policy loans

The COA handles policy-oriented special agricultural loans focued on boosting agricultural development. Last year we provided NT$38.4 billion in new loans to 67,000 farmers and fishermen to give them needed capital. Loans outstanding totaled NT$122.6 billion, benefiting nearly 260,000 farmers and fishermen. We also assisted about 43,000 farmers and fishermen to use the agricultural credit guarantee mechanism so that they could raise capital totaling NT$22.5 billion.

After typhoons Fanapi and Megi (both in 2010), a total of NT$1.2 billion in low-interest emergency loans were provided to 862 farmers and fishermen to help them restore operations. Some of the victims of these typhoons were in fact still repaying loans taken out after Typhoon Morakot (2009). To help such people we lowered their interest rate on new loans from 1.25% per year to 1%, gave government subsidies to cover the interest for the first year, lengthened the terms of the loans, and extended the grace period for principal repayments by one year.

Building an agri-finance information platform

The COA set up a special foundation to operate a financial information center for rural finance and to centralize the work of information centers of local farmers and fishermen’s associations (F/FAs). Already the ABT and 325 F/FAs have joined, accounting for 95% of all F/FAs. The COA has also been promoting the operation of a common global information network for all F/FAs as well as a portal for F/FA enterprises.