Outlined Analysis

The goal of agricultural production is to maintain balance between production and sales, ensure food supplies, upgrade production quality and seek equilibrium between human activities and ecology. Afflicted by unstable weather, production of agricultural products was affected, and in response to the Nation’s entry into WTO, the scope of voluntary fallowing was expanded. Moreover, forestry production abandoned harvest of sub-products due to low prices. Adding up the effects of the above causes, the overall agricultural production index dropped by 0.95% as compared to last year. This is mainly due to economic slowdown. Prices of agricultural products at places of production had more downfall than growth, and the total trading value of agricultural products declined by 0.95%, registering a deficit of nearly half a billion US Dollars. However, supply of stable foods and nutrition to the domestic market was still sufficient. Along with the economic development and shifting of industrial structure, the agricultural population diminishes gradually over the years, and the ratio of farming households’ income outside of agricultural production increases. Such diversified income sources lend significant assistance to stabilizing the economy of farming villages and improving farmers’ lives.

I. Agricultural Production Index

　　 The Agricultural Production Index of this year is recorded as 95.51 (calculated based on the Fisher Ideal Formula), which shows 0.95% of decline as compared to the index of last year (2000). Analyzing the index by industrial category, the agricultural category has a downfall by 4.33%. This is mainly due to frequent monsoons, which caused a significant drop in production of rice, miscellaneous stable foods, crops for specific uses, vegetables, and flowers. The forestry product category has a negative growth of 17.21%. This is caused by a fall in the price of bamboo shoots; due to the low prices, farmers abandoned to harvest sub-products of bamboo crops. Although fishery production decreased by nearly 40 thousand tons, production of high price products such as tuna grew in contrary, bringing the index of this category to a growth by 1.93%. The animal product category registered a growth of 0.31%, albeit a reduction in production of poultry, goat, and milk, which is balanced by an increase in hog production of more than 50 thousand tons.

II. Structure of Agricultural Production

　　 The overall production value of agricultural products this year is recorded as NT$ 352.8 billion, which shows a decrease by 3.02% compared to last year. This is mainly caused by lowered production of rice, vegetables, miscellaneous stable foods, and crops for specific uses, a decline in fishery catchments, and a downward movement in hog and chick egg prices. Among the four industries of Agriculture, Forestry, Fishery, and Animal Husbandry, the production value of Agricultural Products has the highest weight, taking up 45.57%, Animal Husbandry second, sharing 28.69%, Fishery Production third, sharing 25.57%, and Forestry Production the last contributing only 0.17%. Compared to the production value structure of last year, animal production fell by 0.88 percentage points, yet fishery production grew by 0.63 percentage points. Agricultural production had a growth of 0.16 percentage points, and forestry production also had a growth of 0.10 percentage points.

　　 The Agricultural Production Value of this year is registered at around NT$ 160.8 billion, which carries a negative growth of 2.69% compared to last year. In the structure of agricultural production value, fruits take the lead with 36.14% and vegetables second with 22.87%. The rest include rice, sharing 20.42%, crops for specific uses, taking up 6.73%, and miscellaneous stable foods and other crops, sharing 5 to 9%. Compared to the structure of last year, the value of other crops went up by 1.96 percentage points, which were brought about by annexation of the production value of orchids into this category. Fruits had a growth of 1.17 percentage points and crops for specific uses have declined by 1.20 percentage points.

　　 The Animal Production Value of this year is registered as NT$ 101.2 billion, which carries a negative growth of 4.91% compared to last year. In the structure of animal production value, hogs take the lead with 45.70% and poultry second with 31.84%. The rest include eggs, sharing 11.29% and miscellaneous animal products, sharing 11.17%. Compared to last year, this year has a large decline in hog production by 2.67 percentage points. This is mainly due to continuous low prices over the whole year, which hovered around NT$ 37 to 44/Kg.

　　 The Fishery Production Value of this year is registered as NT$ 90.2 billion, which carries a negative growth of 0.56% compared to last year. In the structure of fishery production value, offshore fishery takes the lead with 51.72% and inland aquaculture second with 26.15%. The rest include inshore fishery, sharing 13.62%, costal fishery, taking up 4.77%, seawater aquaculture, sharing 3.71% and a minor share of inland fishery. Compared to last year, this year has a larger growth in inland aquaculture by 1.50 percentage points and a decline in offshore fishery by 0.78 percentage points.

III. Overview of Agricultural Production

　　 Due to unstable weather, this year’s crop production was affected, and forestry, fishery, and animal product productions show alternating growth and decline. The following is an overview of production on major products:

(I) Agricultural Products

1. Rice

　　 The total rice-production area in this year is recorded at 332,183 acres. A decline of 7,766 acres or 2.28% is registered compared to last year. The total rice-grain production is recorded at approximately 1.72 million tons, which denotes a decline from the production of last year by 9.56%. This is the year with the lowest production volume after World War II. In which, the first season of rice production was affected due to the low prices of last year, which affected farmers’ willingness to plant such crop. Affected by the government’s extended criteria for voluntary fallowing and promotion of planned replanting, the total harvested area in this year declined to 188,553 acres or 3.33% compared to last year, and the total rice-grain production shrank to approximately 1.11 million tons or 10.14% compared to the production of the same period last year. This is due to lower production volumes in part of the areas due to a rice blast epidemic. Due to planed fallowing, the total area of the second season rice-harvest shrank to 143,066 acres. The unit-area production was affected by Typhoon Toraji and Typhoon Nari; rice-grain production declined to approximately 0.62 million tons or 8.49% compared to the same period of last year, breaking the record as the new low of rice production volume in the second season.

2. Miscellaneous Stable Crops

　　 In response to the Nation’s entry into WTO, the government has been pushing forward paddy and upland farming field utilization adjustment plans since 1998, encouraging planting of other crops or voluntary fallowing. Adding the effects of typhoons and monsoons, production of this year’s miscellaneous crops has had an overall negative growth. Among which, production area of red-bean declined by half due to lower contract prices. Adding the devastation of Typhoon Xangsane and diseases, production of red-bean fell in a large scale by 39.03%. The unfavorable price of peanuts reduced farmers’ willingness for planting in this year; therefore, the production dropped by 29.12%. Due to an adjustment in the government buyout system and cut back on the number of yearly price-guaranteed buyouts, production of feed corn and sorghum continue to decline by 18.51% and 18.16% respectively. Production of soybean, on the other hand, grew by 11.19% and sweet potatoes and food corn grew only slightly.

3. Crops for Specific Uses

　　 Production of all crops for specific uses over the years followed the trend of decline. Among which, raw-material sugarcane had a reduced production by 25.69%, which is due to a reduction in planting area as well as unit-area production volume. Although increased in planting area, tobacco has had a bad harvest year, which reduced the production volume by 18.74%. Due to reduced planting area and devastation of Typhoon Nari during the autumn harvest season, production of tea dropped by 2.52%. Although increased in planting area, the unit-area production volume of sesame still dropped by 12% and total production volume declined by 2.28% due to rainfall during the harvest season. Due to decline in the planting areas for fruit sugarcane and Beatle nuts, slight drop in productions was also registered for these two categories.

4. Fruits

　　 Production of fruits over this year has had more growth than decline. In which, production of waxed apple in the last year was largely affected by cold fronts during its flowering season in winter; however, the climate returned to normal in the same period of this year; therefore, the production also returned to normal with a growth of 38.50%. Longgan has a characteristic of cross-year fruiting. This year is a good harvest year for Longgan, which yielded a growth in production of 33.33%. Due to frost damages and devastation of Typhoon Nari, production of apple dropped in the last year; this year, production returned to normal with a growth of 33.04%. Due to Typhoon damages, guava, sweetsop, and Wendan Pomelo had reduction in production last year; this year, the production returned back to normal and yielded 17.20, 16.87, and 13.39% of growth respectively. Due to warm winter (causing poor flowering) and Typhoon Toraji, unit-area production of plum, prune, Lychee, and pear declined and the production volume declined by 11 to 12%. The rest of products did not register significant fluctuation.

5. Vegetables

　　 Production of most vegetables over this year has had negative growth. This is mainly due to unstable weather during midyear; during which, Typhoon Cimaron and monsoon in May, Typhoon Chebi and monsoon in June, Typhoon Utor and Trami in July, Typhoon Toraji in the end of June and beginning of July, and Typhoon Nari and Lekima in September affected the production of vegetables, causing the harvest-areas and unit-production volumes of several products to drop. Inflicted by Typhoon Xangsane during its initial growth, the harvest-area as well as unit production volume of onion in the last year shrank and the production volume dropped by 37.83%.With a reduction of 26% in plating area, production of leaf mustard dropped by 36.32%. Production volumes of potato, pea, melon, cucumber, carrot, water spinach, garlic, radish and green onion declined by 12 to 26%. Affected by bad weather in the last year, production of day-lily in this year registered a relative growth by 71.17%. Due to an increase in planting area as well as unit-area production volume, production of water bamboo grew by 38.98%. Production of mushrooms grew by 25.38%, production of yam, champignon, and winter melon grew by 17.63, 14.32, and 13.08% respectively, and the rest of products did not register significant fluctuation in production.

6. Flowers

　　 Productions of flowers of various categories registered less growth than decline over the year. This is mainly due to a reduction in planting area caused by lower demand from a slowdown in the economy. Among which, production of Dahlia dropped by 24.18% due to a reduction in planting area by 30% and production of seeds dropped by 22.98% due a decrease in unit-area production volume. The most widely planted flower in the Nation, chrysanthemum, had a shrinkage in planting area by 15% and drop in production volume for 13.24%. Product of roses and nursery/potted products fell by 3 to 6%. Due to water shortage, production of bulb category products fell significantly last year; this year, production returned to normal and the production volume grew by 17.73%.

(II) Forestry Products

　　 Due to the rising awareness of nature and land resource conservation, the forestry industry has shifted its center on economic production to multi-elemental land-resource conservation, landscaping, wild-life protection, and recreational businesses. Therefore, production of wood in recent years has been on a decline. The total wood used in this year is approximately 26 thousand square meters, which registered 24.92% of growth from that of last year and production of shoot woods also grew by 92.72%. This is mainly due to mass trimming of wood shoots by Taiwan Power Company to make way for electrical installations in the mountain areas. However, production of forestry sub-products fell by 27.30%, due to the fact that farmers abandoned harvest of bamboo shoots.

(III) Fishery Products

　　 The total volume of catchments this year is recorded at approximately 1.32 million tons with a negative growth of 2.98%. In which, offshore fishery has a drop in squid catchments by 42% due to a bad relationship with Argentina, reducing the annual production volume to 0.80 million tons (60.42% of total catchments), which caused a decline by 10.29%. Inland aquaculture has a growth in the total annual volume of 0.29 million tons (21.72% of total catchments) with a growth of 25.38%. This is mainly due to a large scale growth in production of milkfish and tilapia. Inshore fishery has a total annual volume of 0.16 million tons (12.07% of total catchments) with a decline by 6.22%. This is mainly due to a drop in production caused by diminishing fishery resources. Coastal aquaculture has a total annual volume of 0.05 million tons with a growth in production by 11.15%. The annual production volume of seawater aquaculture was around 27 thousand tons, which fell by 5.37%. Coastal fishery did not yield significant volume.

(IV) Animal Products

　　 Production of various animal products showed less positive than negative growth. Among which, increased number of corporatized hog farms drove the annual hog production to grow by approximately 1.17 million tons with a growth rate of 4.49% compared to last year. Due to an increase in cattle farming in Tainan and Pingtung Counties, production of cow products grew by 3.18%. Production of propolis grew by 5.32% and goat production fell by 12.10% due to a drop in price at place of production. Due to a reduced production in the main production area, Chia-I, production volume of turkey dropped by 8.40%. The rest, such as meat duck, meat chicken, milk, and geese registered negative growth by 3 to 5%.

IV. Food Consumption

　　 The average per person food supply in year 2000 in the Taiwan Area is calculated as the following: grains 95.64 Kg (among which rice shares 54.17 Kg and flour 34.21 Kg), potatoes 23.63 Kg, sugar and honey (mainly sugar) 28.65 Kg, nuts and oilseeds 26.40 Kg, vegetables, 115.52 Kg, fruits 136.30 Kg, meats 77.81 Kg, eggs 19.22 Kg, aqua products 40.34 Kg, dairy products 56.04 Kg, and fats 25.07 Kg. Compared to year 1999, supplies of sugar and honey, nuts and oilseeds, grains, and potatoes yielded growth. Supply of meats stayed stable and supply of fruits, aqua products, vegetables, fats, dairy products, and eggs declined. Compared to the figures taken ten years ago (1990), except supplies of aqua products, nuts and oilseeds, and grains which fell by 15.01, 8.91, and 6.44% respectively, supply of the rest of the eight major food groups has had growth. Among which, eggs grew by as much as 58.44% and dairy products, vegetables, meats, potatoes, and fats grew by 10 to 30%.

　　 The average per person per day nutrition intake in year 1999 in the Taiwan Area is calculated based on the level of each category of foods supplied – they are energy 2,974 Kcal, protein 97.10g (including vegetable protein 46.90g and animal protein 50.20g), and fats 123.32g. Compared to the data recorded last year, calorie intake stays constant and intake of protein and fats decreased by 0.93% and 2.95% respectively. Compared to the data taken ten years ago, intake of calories, protein, and fats increased by 4.73, 4.58, and 12.50% respectively.

　　 PFC ratio refers to the percentage composition of Protein (P), Fat (F) and Carbohydrate (C). This ratio can be used to observe the dietary structure of residents in the country. Based on the recommendation of the Department of Health, Executive Yuan, intake of calories from fats should be maintained below 30%, and intake of calories from protein varies by age, gender, and level of physical activities. Persons with medium level of physical activities should maintain such intake between 10 and 14%. The ideal PFC ratio is approximately 12:30:58. Calculated based on the main nutritional intake in the Taiwan area in 2000, the PFC ratio is 13:37:50. This ratio indicates that diet of residents in the country has been changing over the years and is inclining to over-intake of fats and insufficient intake of carbohydrates.

V. Prices of Agricultural Products

　　 Affected by production and economic slowdown, prices of agricultural, fishery and animal products at places of production showed more decline than growth. In which, agricultural products yielded positive as well as negative growth, yet fishery and animal products were on the trend of decline. The following is a description of movements in major product categories at places of production:

(I) Rice Grains

　　 Farm Prices of Japonica Paddy of this year were averaged at NT$ 18.28/Kg. Compared to last year, a growth of 1.05% is registered. This is mainly due to the low prices of last year. The first season of year 2000 had a good harvest. However, after 921 Earthquake, storage spaces became insufficient. Adding the situation that rice merchants anticipated a price drop after the country enters WTO and became unwilling to hold stock, more stock were held by farmers, which caused the price of rice grains to drop to as low as NT$16/Kg.

(II) Peanuts

The yearly average price of peanuts at place of production fell by 21.16% at NT$ 36.26/Kg as compared to the price of last year. Since the second season of last year had a good harvest, the first half of this year had sufficient supply; therefore, the price of peanuts at place of production in the first half of this year floated around NT$ 30/Kg. Although domestic production after this period went down, market supply was still sufficient due to active smuggling, which caused the price to stay low. After a wave of reinforced surveillance on smuggling, the price of peanuts began to rise in October. Only, the price over the whole year still averaged lower.

(III) Red-bean

The yearly average price of red-bean at place of production grew by an average 22.61% at NT$ 58.03/Kg as compared to the price of last year. This is mainly brought about by a fall in supply.

(IV) Vegetables

　　 Vegetable prices at places of production yielded positive as well as negative growth over the year, compared to the price of last year. In which, production of onion fell in a large scale due to devastation of Typhoon Xangsane during its growth period; the price went up by 88%. French bean, spinach, leaf mustard, bitter gourd, and Pak-Choi went up 10 to 20%. Due to devastation of Typhoon Bilis last year, production of Day Lily shrank, which drove the price of last year to stay high. In relative terms, price in this year fell by 21%. The price of garlic stayed low in this year after harvest due to a slowdown in economy and subsequent inactivity in the food service industry. The average price of garlic over the whole year fell 29% compared to the price of last year. Prices of pea, water spinach, celery cabbage, and cucumber went down around 10%.

(V) Fruits

　　 Prices of fruits at places of production over the year registered positive as well as negative growth as compared to the average of last year. Among each individual category of fruits, melon, papaya, and mandarin orange went up by 26%, but Wendan Pomelo, longgan, and Lychee fell by around 20%.

(VI) Hogs

　　 The yearly average of hog trading price fell by 14.87% at NT$ 40.13/Kg as compared to the price of last year. Due to sufficient supply of hogs and economic slowdown, prices of hogs remained low over the whole year. Although after the government actively promoted the exit-husbandry policy, the total number of hog farms notably decreased; however, the survey on hog headcount taken in the end of May 2001 shows that the number of corporatized hog farms with over 2000 heads of hogs went up by 6.79%, compared to the same period of last year. Instead of shrinkage, this trend brought about an expansion in production by 50 thousand tons. Adding the factor of lower demand brought about by economic slowdown, the price of hogs remained low over the whole year at around NT$ 37 to 44.

(VII) Meat Chickens

　　 The yearly average price of meat chicken at places of production dropped by 1.83% at NT$ 31.62/Kg as compared to the price of last year. This is due to a hike in the total supply constituted by a growth in domestic production by more than 4 million chickens and 9 thousand tons of imports.

(VIII) Chicken Eggs

　　 The yearly average price of chicken eggs at places of production fell by 4.10% at NT$ 22.45/kg, as compared to the price of last year. Due to excess production, the price of chicken eggs after April this year stayed low and the monthly average of June dropped even further to below NT$ 20/Kg. Afterwards, the Poultry Association, R.O.C. went into the market and purchased a total of more than 16 thousand cartons to stabilize the price of chicken eggs. Although the demand rose after Typhoon Toraji and Nari, prices of chicken eggs still failed to go up in a substantial scale.

(IX) Aqua Products

　　 The yearly average wholesale price of aqua products at places of production had more negative growth than positive growth. In which, prices of milkfish, Red Sea Bream, Red-barred rock-cod, threadfin porgy, golden thread, tuna, and oyster fell by 20 to 40%, but price of clam went up for nearly 20%.

VI. Trading of Agricultural Products

　　 Based on custom data, the total import/export value of this year registered a negative growth of US$ 58.2 billion or 20.18% at US$ 230.1 billion as compared to the value of last year. Trading of Agricultural Products was still on a slowdown. The total import/export value was recorded at US$ 9.88 billion with a negative growth of US$ 0.99 billion or 9.09% as compared to last year. In which, export shares US$ 3.03 billion or 2.47% of the total export value, and imports are totaled at the value of US$ 6.854 billion, which takes a 6.39% share of the total export value. The trade deficit shrank by US$ 0.49 billion or 11.40% at US$ 3.82 billion as compared to last year. In which, fishes and related products and leathers and related products were the major items of export, with export values sharing over 25% of the total export value of agricultural products individually. Major products imported were mainly grains and related products and woods and related products. Each of the category shares more than 10% of the total import value of agricultural products.

VII. Farming Households and Farming Population

　　 Along with economic development and shifts in industrial structure, farming households and farming population have been on a continuous decline. According to the Year 2000 Agriculture, Forestry, Fishery, and Husbandry Census conducted by Directorate General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics, there were a total of 721,076 farming households in year 2000 in the Taiwan Area, which shared 10.82% of the total households in the Taiwan Area. There was approximately 3.67 million of population in the farming households, which took up 16.51% of the total population. In this year, a total of 0.708 million of farming population was registered, which indicated a continuous decline by 4.32% or 0.25 percentage points as compared to the figure of last year and shared 7.55% of the total working population.

VIII. Income of Farming Households

　　 According to the Taiwan Area Family Income/Expenditure Survey, each farming household earned an average income of NT$ 918 thousand in year 2000, which shows a drop by 1.08% as compared to the figure of 1999. In which, income from farming was averaged at NT$ 161 thousand, sharing 17.56%, and income from sources other than farming was averaged at NT$ 757 thousand, taking up 82.44%. Eliminating the factor of per household population, each person in farming household earned an average of NT$ 226 thousand, which denoted a decrease of 1.33% as compared to the figure of last year.

IX. Agricultural Damages of and Relief for Natural Disasters

　　 A total of 13 natural disasters occurred in this year, causing an approximate loss of NT$ 14.76 billion of damages to agricultural, forestry, fishery, and husbandry industries and water-soil infrastructures in the Taiwan and Minnan Areas. From which, major damages were brought about by Typhoon Toraji in mid-July and Typhoon Nari in mid-September. The storms and subsequent monsoon brought serious damages to agricultural production as well as facilities. The above two typhoons caused a damage to agriculture in a total of NT$ 12.95 billion. Based on the “Implementation Rules of Agricultural Natural Disaster Relief “ and other related regulations, the Council of Agriculture conducted cash assistance and relief loans for aims to help farmers to restart farming, rebuild, and subsidize their losses. A total of 74,515 household received cash assistances in the total of NT$ 0.83 billion for agricultural natural disaster relief. A total of 462 households received assistance from the relief loans in the total of NT$ 0.369 billion. These schemes lent tremendous help to farmers for replanting and rebuilding.