1. Amendments were announced to the “Regulations for Establishing an Institutional Animal Care and Use Panel,” and they were re-titled as “Regulations for Establishing an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee or Panel.” The changes allow the COA to deal with those institutions which had not yet established committees (as required) to monitor in-house animal experiments.

2. An amended version of Article 5 of “Regulations Governing Subsidies for Financial Institutions to Acquire Collateral Damaged or Destroyed in Disaster Areas” was announced.

3. The COA declared Miaoli County to be a natural disaster area for watermelon and muskmelon, thereby making low-rate loans for natural disasters affecting agriculture available to farmers of these two crops.

4. COA Minister Chen Wu-hsiung, acting as a special ambassador of the ROC President, attended a summit in PuntaCana, Dominican Republic, on the future of Haiti. Chen also went to Haiti, where he met with President René Préval, and they discussed concrete measures for advancing the ROC’s “Villageof Hope”program for post-disaster reconstruction and long-term development.

5. The COA attended the APEC FotC Meeting on Food Security Issues, held in Sapporo,Japan. Attendees discussed the agenda for the APEC Ministerial Meeting on Food Security and the contents of a declaration to be made at that meeting, and Taiwan garnered support for hosting an APEC Food Security Forum.

6. The 15 recently-elected presidents of Irrigation Associations in TaiwanProvince took their oaths of office. At a follow-up seminar, the COA asked the presidents to help in promoting the work of amending the Irrigation Association Organization Act and other tasks, in order to improve the operational effectiveness of these associations.

7. 43 new guidelines for novel applications of registered agro-pesticides (“label extensions”) were announced, thereby helping farmers use agrochemicals more safely and protecting the safety of food for consumers.

8. In order to implement quarantine control of goat pox (GP) outbreaks, the COA completed the preparation of 430,000 doses of GP vaccine. Depending upon conditions in each area, the COA assisted local competent authorities to establish and implement vaccination plans.

9. Mechanisms for evacuating people in the event of threatened natural disasters were tested in nine localities, raising consciousness among local governments of the importance of preventive measures to be taken in such situations.

10. A policy conference on adjusting agriculture in response to climate change was convened to allow cross-ministerial and cross-domain discussion.

11. The COA attended the 14th annual meeting of the APEC Agricultural Technical Cooperation Working Group (ATCWG) held in Beijing, mainland China.

12. A total of 94 farmers associations, fishermen’s associations, and other related organizations participated in the “Taiwan Pavilion” of Food Taipei 2010 (an international food fair), sponsoring 186 booths.

13. Events were held to celebrate National Fishermen’s Day 2010. The ROC President attended and handed out awards to 12 national model fishermen.

14. Additional measures were taken to adjust the market for bananas. The price of green bananas supplied to the domestic market rose from NT$3-6 to NT$7-12 per kilo, while those for export rose from NT$12-15 to NT$15-20 per kilo.

15. At the 2010 TechnoMart, 91 items of recently developed agricultural technology with commercial potential were put on display, and two special sections were set up, one for providing advice and information to agro-technology enterprises, and the other for encouraging firms to make use of incubation centers.

16. A seminar was held for top-level people in the agricultural sector to explain to them the importance of the government’s signing of ECFA with mainland China, to solicit suggestions, and to assist in resolving problems encountered by farmers and fishermen.

17. Pangcah Miaraw: The Ethnobotany of Amis in Eastern Formosa, a book published by the COA, was awarded a special prize at the 2nd National Publication Awards.