The rural regeneration program

The COA has completed all the regulations and bylaws required by the Rural Regeneration Act, and we have been pro-actively promoting all relevant tasks and programs to revitalize rural communities. We have created mechanisms to concretely implement rural regeneration, and have also set up a cross-ministerial platform that will enable the government to implement rural regeneration with maximum effectiveness.

Acting on the basis of the Rural Regeneration Act, the COA has promoted a base-level training program to stimulate potential capabilities and generate a sense of collective identity in rural communities. We have created a customized curriculum that provides a mechanism for citizen participation in rural regeneration. We are giving the highest priority to “autonomous community activism.” Through 2011, 1920 communities had participated in the training, for a total of 87,431 attendees, and we also guided the drafting of 115 community plans for rural regeneration.

We are also working to contribute to basic infrastructure in rural farming and fishing communities that will simultaneously preserve rural cultural traditions while encouraging greater interaction between rural and urban dwellers. By improving the basic infrastructure for production and daily life, we are aiming to upgrade the quality of life and cultural level of rural communities, making them more attractive places to live and to visit. As of the end of December of 2011, implementing the annual plan under the rural regeneration program, we undertook a total of 51 community infrastructure projects (both software and hardware), and also undertook urgent and essential environmental improvement projects in 431 rural communities.

Promotion of entrepreneurship in Agricultural Production and Marketing Groups

The COA has been helping to organize Agricultural Production and Marketing Groups (APMGs), including: (a) strengthening their organizational functioning, (b) training management and supervisory personnel, (c) promoting entrepreneurship, and (d) assisting and subsidizing their business activities. The COA has also been implementing a “business diagnosis” program at elite APMGs. In 2011 a total of 28 APMGs were diagnosed and assisted, including 13 in the fruit category, eight in the vegetables category, one in the flowers category, three in the rice category, and three in the “specialty crops” category. In addition, 256 new APMGs were organized and completed their registration process with the government, while 1755 revised their registration data. In addition, in 2011 professional staff from farmers’ associations conducted ten classes in entrepreneurship at APMGs, with a total of 273 persons completing training. We also conducted evaluations of 4683 APMGs, with 4261 found up to standard. A total of 26 APMGs had their registration withdrawn because they failed to come up to standard for the second consecutive year.

As of the end of December, there were a total of 6507 APMGs in the following categories: (1) fruit, 2356 APMGs; (2) vegetables, 1976; (3) flowers, 413; (4) specialty crops, 385; (5) rice, 361; (6) grains, 181; (7) fungi and mushrooms, 69; (8) other crops, 7; (9) honeybees, 64; (10) other, 695.

CULTIVATING HIGH-QUALITY HUMAN RESOURCES

Founding of the Farmers’ Academy

The Farmers’ Academy was formally founded on November 5, 2011. The project of the academy includes: (a) construction of a comprehensive and integrated agricultural educational system; (b) setting of basic professional standards for a cumulative total of 26 rural industries; (c) organization of systematic agricultural training, field trips, and practical training. In 2011, the institute held a total of 25 introductory- level courses, 10 primary-level courses, 58 intermediate-level courses, and 2 advanced-level courses, for a total of 95 classes with 2678 participants. The academy also organized practical on-site farm training for 121 persons; activities for people who are not farmers but may be interested in becoming farmers (especially young people and families) to get a taste of farm life, involving 1544 participants in 46 groups; and six lectures in the “agricultural elite” lecture series.

The institute has also: (a) set up an Internet academy which has so far attracted over 375,700 hits; (b) published 14 issues of an e-newsletter on agricultural studies; (c) held two press conferences to inform and educate the media; (d) held 14 farmers markets;
and (e) held three hands-on learning activities related to farm management and product marketing.

Training community-based human resources

The COA has created a curriculum for training people to 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 2011, we had provided training to a total of 87,431 course attendees in 1920 communities. Of these, 134 communities have completed Stage 4 training, and 115 have drafted their own autonomous community rejuvenation plans. We are steadily implementing rural development that will ensure sustainability of rural lifestyles and communities, growth in their local economies, and protection of their local ecology.

Closing the rural-urban digital gap

The COA aims to bring the benefits of information technology to rural dwellers by providing farmers with diversified online information that they can access at times of their own choosing. In 2011 we completed four subject areas (agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture, and agricultural policy), for a cumulative total of 95 agriculture-related e-courses.

Promoting innovation in rural culture

We have launched community-based projects in 108 communities to promote sustainability and creative development of rural culture. We encourage residents to live culture-friendly lifestyles, bringing new vitality and purpose to their communities. Among the activities sponsored by the COA in 2011 were a community story-telling contest, “green life” performances, and an event built around rural children’s toys and crafts. A total of ten “seed courses” and two special projects have been completed, involving 718 attendees. Moreover, the COA has formed 15 guidance teams who have given 431 classes on identification and use of rural-community assets, passing along of cultural traditions, and development of the humanities at the local level. A total of 15,618 attendees have received instruction.

The COA also guided 180 township farmers associations in 17 counties in offering courses employing “green” resources to get young people involved in agriculture and rural cultural traditions. We held 591 workshops for “youth farming and education in local culture” (17,731 persons), 576 public-service activities (12,551 attendees), 289 lecture and training activities (7436 attendees), 180 volunteer training activities (2958 attendees), 160 conference or meeting events (3150 attendees), 306 exhibitions of accomplishments (89,915 attendees), an annual meeting with award presentations (350 persons), international rural youth exchange activities (22 persons going abroad, 14 persons hosted), and events at which persons who went abroad for “grassroots exchanges” spoke about their experiences (80 persons).

CONSTRUCTION OF A SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR RURAL LIVING

Improving life management skills of rural women

The COA encourages rural women to participate in lifelong education, aiming to reduce the knowledge gap and increase their skills for daily life. In 2010 the COA guided 237 farmers’ associations in holding 2038 classes in home economics. Subjects included: ways to use special local agricultural products; health and nutrition; home care; and carbon reduction. A total of 48,168 women participated. In addition, though conferences, demonstration events, contests, speeches given by individuals about their personal experiences, seminars, and lectures, the COA trained 360 home economics “seed teachers.” The COA also arranged training in home-care and home-management skills for 510 persons, increasing not only their personal homemaking abilities but also their possibilities for part-time work outside the home.

Creating more learning opportunities for rural seniors

In 2011 the COA held 173 classes in life improvement for seniors, serving 8650 elderly people. These classes aim 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 assisted 25 farmers associations in resource-poor rural localities to run community-services centers, and selected and trained 650 volunteers to staff them.

Also, in coordination with the “Small Landlords, Big Tenants” program, the COA assisted “small landlord” farmers over 65 years of age who had rented out their land, counseled retired farmers, and arranged for rural crafts apprenticeships, affecting 219 people in eight townships. We also continued to guide farmers associations to create, in 30 locations, specialized windows to help elderly farmers with financial planning; guided 10 farmers associations in organizing creative activities for rural elders to stimulate creative thinking in combining traditional local rural specialties with creative new ideas; and promoted health improvement and participatory learning activities for 216 elderly people with an average age of 70. Finally, to disseminate information about our successful experiences, we also produced a 90-minute documentary, 60-minute programs for public television and MOD broadcast, and five-minute segments in both Chinese and English for Youtube.

Strengthening rural functional organizations

The COA has been working to improve the functioning of Irrigation Associations (IAs). We have been monitoring these associations on the basis of the Irrigation Associations Organization Act, and we have amended relevant regulations including (a) those governing the procedure for organizing IAs and (b) those governing evaluations, rewards, and punishments of directors and staff of IAs. In order to reduce the financial burden on farmers, in 2011 the COA provided NT$2.228 billion in subsidies to IAs to keep 15 associations operating normally.

In 2011 the COA held a national conference bringing together the members of the boards of directors, standing members of the boards of supervisors, and executive directors of Fishermen’s Associations at all levels, as well as organized two meetings to hear progress reports from the executive directors. In addition, there were quarterly regional conferences (again involving members of the boards of directors, standing members of the boards of supervisors, and executive directors) of Fishermen’s Associations for northern, central, and southern Taiwan, in order to effectively coordinate views among the various levels of Fishermen’s Associations.

In preparation for the next scheduled elections at Farmers Associations (FAs) and in order to improve their management functions, we have worked on amendments to (a) the Farmers Associations Act; (b) the Rules and Regulations of Qualification for Engaging in Agriculture for Directors and Supervisors of FAs; and (c) Regulations Governing Performance Evaluations of FAs. In addition, in terms of enhancing services provided by FAs, the COA helped six FAs in “creative transformation,” seven FAs with business development, and 20 FAs in renewing their facilities for continuing education.

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 302 F/FAs (with a total of 1,161 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 2011 there were over 2.36 million such transactions totalling nearly NT$11.5 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$766.4 billion. Before-tax net profit was NT$4.8 billion. The non-performing loan ratio was 2.23%. The balance of deposits at the ABT was NT$627 billion, outstanding loans were NT$169.2 billion, and before-tax net profit was NT$804 million. These results show that F/FA credit departments and the ABT have been continually improving their operations.

Making special-purpose policy loans

The COA handles policy-oriented special agricultural loans focused on specific problems of agricultural development and rural welfare that the government wants to target. In 2011 we provided NT$38.1 billion in new loans to 61,000 farmers and fishermen to give them needed capital. Loans outstanding totaled NT$125.9 billion, benefiting nearly 270,000 farmers and fishermen. We also assisted about 40,000 farmers and fishermen to use the agricultural credit guarantee mechanism so that they could raise capital totaling NT$22.9 billion.

Following Typhoon Morakot in 2009, the government provided (a) low-interest disaster relief loans and (b) special loans for victims of Typhoon Morakot, totaling NT$3.6 billion, to 2840 farmers and fishermen. Considering that the expenses incurred to restore operations at farm and aquaculture operations were much larger than following other natural disasters, and considering also that production and profits at some farm and fisheries operations have been unstable, on September 30 of 2011 the COA announced that, for both types of loans, there would be an extension of one year for both the grace period and the repayment time beyond the terms agreed in the original loan contracts.

Integrating agricultural-finance information

The COA has been assisting in the creation of a common information platform for the financial operations of farmers and fishermen’s associations (F/FAs), in order to lower the costs of information operations at F/FAs and to bring into play the advantages of linking up all the outlets of F/FAs. A foundation was created for this task, and following the reorganization of its board of directors and the launching of its decision-making mechanism, the job of purchasing the system and installing the hardware and software for the common account operations system for F/FAs has been completed. The information system is currently being brought into operation.