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. With consecutive advent of typhoons and monsoons, this year (2000) has had more rainfall, causing a downfall in agricultural production. Contrarily, fishery products took a turn to a hike, registering nearly 10% of growth in the weighted index. This is mainly due to higher production of higher-price fish fries including shrimps and eel. Production of animal products has also registered a growth due to higher production of hogs. Therefore, the overall agricultural production index of this year still registered a growth of 3.04%, compared to the figure of last year. Agricultural product prices at place of production fluctuate along with the production; in contrary, agricultural product trading had a slight growth. Summarizing from the above, agricultural production this year is sufficient to provide for domestic consumption. Along with the economic development and shifting of industrial structure, the population of agricultural production 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 97.21 (setting the index of 1996 as 100), which shows 3.04% of increase as compared to the index of last year (1999). Analyzing the index by industrial category, the agricultural category has a downfall by 2.70%. This is mainly due to excessive rainfall, which caused a significant drop in production of miscellaneous stable foods, vegetables, and fruits. The forestry product category has a growth of 2.55%. This is brought about by a growth in production of sub-products including bamboo shoots and fungi. Although fishery production decreased by more than seven thousand tons, production of high price products such as banded shrimps and eel grew by 60 to 90%. Therefore, the index of this category hiked by 9.20% in contrary. The animal product category registered a growth of 5.71%, which is mainly due to an increase in hog production by 12%.

II. The Structure of Agricultural Production

　　 The overall production value of agricultural products this year is recorded as NT$ 364.4 billion, which shows a decrease by 6.92% compared to last year. This is mainly caused by a lowered value in agricultural and animal production, constituted by a drop in prices of hogs and chickens, due to higher production, and decreased production in rice and fruits. Among the four industries of Agriculture, Forestry, Fishery, and Animal Husbandry, the production value of Agricultural Products has the highest weight, taking up 45.34%, Animal Husbandry second, sharing 29.53%, Fishery Production third, sharing 25.06%, and Forestry Production the last contributing only 0.07%. Compared to the production value structure of last year, agricultural production and fishery production grew by 1.78 and 1.96 percentage points respectively, yet animal production and other products saw a downturn by 3.66 percentage points. Forestry production has registered minor fluctuations.

　　 The Agricultural Production Value of this year is registered as NT$ 165.2 billion, which carries a negative growth of 3.11% compared to last year. In the structure of agricultural production value, fruits take the lead with 34.98% and vegetable second with 23.34%. The rest include rice, sharing 20.98%, crops for specific uses, taking up 7.93%, and miscellaneous stable foods and other crops, sharing 5 to 7%. This structure is approximately similar to that of last year.

　　 The Animal Production Value of this year is registered as NT$ 107.6 billion, which carries a negative growth of 17.20% compared to last year. In the structure of agricultural production value, hogs take the lead with 48.37% and poultry second with 29.36%. The rest include eggs, sharing 10.73% and miscellaneous animal products, sharing 11.54%. Compared to last year, this year has a large decline in poultry production by 2.65 percentage points. This is mainly due to a drop in price during mid-year.

　　 The Fishery Production Value of this year is registered as NT$ 91.3 billion, which carries a growth of 0.99% compared to last year. In the structure of fishery production value, offshore fishery takes the lead with 51.59% and inland aquaculture second with 25.03%. The rest include inshore fishery, sharing 14.36%, costal fishery, taking up 4.99%, seawater aquaculture, sharing 4% and a minor share of inland fishery. Compared to last year, this year has larger growths in inland aquaculture and offshore fishery.

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 339,949 acres. A decline of 13,173 acres or 3.73% is registered compared to last year. This is the year with least crop planting after World War II. The total rice-grain production is recorded at approximately 1.91 million tons, which denotes a decline from the production of last year. In which, the first season of rice production was affected by the 921 Earthquake. During the period, parts of the production areas were suspended of irrigation. The total harvested area in this season is 195,057 acres, which has a decrease of 1.05% compared to last, and the total rice-grain production is 1.23 million tons, which shows a slight growth compared to the same period of last year. Due to planed fallowing in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, and Miaoli areas and higher government awards for voluntary fallowing, the second season of rice-planting has a total area of 144,178 acres, which registers 7.54% of decline compared to the same period of last year, and yielded approximately 0.68 million tons of rice-grains, which also shows a decline by 2.21% from the production of last year.

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, 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 of sorghum and feed-corn continue to decline by 21.21% and 18.34% due to contracted number of yearly price-guaranteed government buyouts. Yearly price-guaranteed government buyouts for soybean have been suspended since; therefore, its production continues to drop by 16.51%. Due to the monsoon brought by Typhoon Dan at the initial planting period of red-bean (October last year), during which, the newly planted seeds were swamped and rotted, the harvest area of read-bean declined and caused the production volume to drop by 15.72%. The unfavorable price of sweet-potatoes in the last year reduced farmers’ willingness for planting this year; therefore, the production dropped by 9.49%. Peanuts, on the other hand, had fairly good price last year; therefore, farmers had high interest in planting the crops; adding the higher unit-area production volume, the production of peanuts grew by 17.83%.

3. Crops for Specific Uses

　　 Production of all crops for specific uses over the years follows the trend of reduced production. Among which, fruit sugarcane and raw-material sugarcane had reduced production by 16.53% and 10.43% respectively, which is due to a reduction in planting area as well as unit-area production volume. Due to reduced planting area, production of tea dropped by 3.65%. Harvest area of Beatle nuts, on the other hand, saw an increase; however, affected by 921 Earthquake which damaged the roots of the crops, its unit-area production volume dropped and thus caused the production volume to drop by 1.80%. Tobacco, in contrary, has had a good harvest year with a growth in production volume at 20.76%.

4. Fruits

　　 Production of fruits over this year has had smaller growth and larger decline. In the first half of this year, the weather was stable and thus brought about good harvest. However, during the flowering season, plentiful rainfall affected fruiting, and, in the second half, frequent visits of typhoons and subsequent monsoons caused the production volume to decline. Among the products, Longgan has had a good harvest last year due to its cross-year fruiting nature, but production in this year has a significant drop by 36%. Production of Sweetsop and Wendan Pomelo dropped by approximately 35% due to Typhoon Bilis. Wax apple also has had a dip in production volume by 35% due to cold-fronts and rains during its flowering period. Production of lychee, grapes, papaya, pipa, guava, persimmon, banana, and mandarin orange also had 10 to 20% of decline. Production of plum, on the other hand, had a growth over 10% due to a growth in unit-area production volume.

5. Vegetables

　　 Production of most vegetables over this year has had negative growth. This is mainly due to unstable weather during midyear; during which excessive rainfall in February, monsoon in June and July, Typhoon Bilis in August, and Typhoon Xangsane in November affected the production of fruits. Affected by bad weather, production of day-lily, celery cabbage, and Chinese mustard drop by 30 to 40% and production of radish, peas, melons, carrot, Cantaloupe, eggplant, cayenne pepper, water-bamboo, bitter gourd, cucumber, cabbage, and watermelon dropped around 10 to 20%. Inflicted by root diseases in the main production area, Pingtung County, last year (planting year 1998/1999), the unit production volume of onion in the last year dropped in a large scale. Due to which, this year farmers replanted with a higher production species. Adding the lower temperature in this year, onions have larger balls and the production returned to the standard; therefore, its production volume grew by 33%. With a higher planting area, production volumes of garlic sprouts, green soybean, potato, and garlic also registered a growth of 20 to 30%.

6. Flowers

　　 Productions of flowers of various categories registered decline as well as growth over the year. Among which, production of lilies and Dahlia grew by 20 to 50%. Production of potted plants also grew by 13%. Planting areas of bulbous plants for seeding dipped a large scale by 84% due to unfavorable flower prices and shortage of water-sources in mountain areas after the earthquake. Due to excessive rainfall, which corroded the bulb roots, both harvest area and unit production of Gladiolus shrank and the production volume dropped by 18%. The most widely planted flower in the Nation, chrysanthemum, had a shrinkage in planting area and drop in production volume for nearly 10%.

(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 21 thousand square meters, which registered 9.42% of drop from that of last year. This mainly due to a suspension on Veteran Affairs Commission’s Qilan Mountain Forest Restructuring Plan since the third quarter of last year. Due to which, production of shoot woods dropped by 78.05%. However, production of sub-products of forestry, such as bamboo shoots and fungi, grew by 39.92%.

(III) Fishery Products

　　 The total volume of catchments this year is recorded at approximately 1.36 million tons. In which, offshore fishery has a total annual volume of 0.89 million tons (65% of total catchments) with a growth by 3.64%. This is mainly due to an increase in catchments of barrilete, mackerel-pike, and banded shrimp. Inland aquaculture has a total annual volume of 0.23 million tons (17% of total catchments) with a decline by 4.57%. This is mainly due to a drop in production of milkfish and tilapia. Inshore fishery has a total annual volume of 0.17 million tons (13% of total catchments) with a decline by 17.56%. This is mainly due to a drop in production caused by diminishing fishery resources. Coastal aquaculture has a total annual volume of 0.04 million tons with a growth in production by 10.28%. Seawater aquaculture has a growth in the annual production volume by 28 thousand tons, which yielded a growth of 17.67%. Coastal fishery did not yield significant volume.

(IV) Animal Products

　　 Production of various animal products showed positive as well as negative growth. Among which, large hog farms increased production following the good price yielded in the last year. This brought about an increase in annual hog production by 1.12 million tons with a growth rate of 11.95%, compared to last year. With expanded production, production of fresh milk grew by 5.93%. Due to continuous losses in recent years, goose farmer contracted their production scales, which caused the volume to shrink by 12.88%. Due to the goats’ foot-mouth epidemic in February, price at place of production dropped slightly and the production declined by 6.58%. Due to reduced herding of yellow and water buffalos, product of cow related products dropped by 5.17%. The rest including duck, turkey, duck eggs, meat chicken, meat duck, and chicken eggs stay stable with minimum fluctuation.

IV. Food Consumption

　　 The average per person food supply in year 1999 in the Taiwan Area is calculated as grains 94.11 Kg (among which rice shares 54.90 Kg and flour 31.66 Kg), potatoes 23.23 Kg, sugar and honey 25.11 Kg, nuts and oilseeds 25.81 Kg, vegetables, 124.47 Kg, fruits 142.20 Kg, meats 78.09 Kg, eggs 19.41 Kg, aqua products 44.78 Kg, dairy products 56.72 Kg, and fats 26.520 Kg. Compared to year 1998, supplies of eight categories - vegetables, aqua products, fats, fruits, potatoes, sugar and honey, nuts and oilseeds, and eggs yielded growth. Supply of grains, meats, and dairy products, on the other hand, dropped slightly.

　　 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 2,962 Kcal, protein 97.64g (including vegetable protein 45.66g and animal protein 51.9g), and fats 127.19g. Compared to year 1998, energy, protein, and fat intake increased by 2.56%, 2.03% and 5.19% respectively.

　　 The 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. The ideal PFC ratio is approximately 12:30:58. Calculated based on the main nutrition intake in the Taiwan area in 1999, the PFC ratio is 13:39:48. This ratio indicates that diet of residents of the country is inclining to over intake of fats and insufficient intake of carbohydrates.

V. Prices of Agricultural Products

　　 Affected by production, prices of agricultural, fishery and animal products at places of production showed growth as well as decline. Among which, most agricultural products yielded 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$ 18.09/Kg. Compared to last year, this price signified a drop by 7.98%. This is mainly due to damages by 921 Earthquake at the main production areas and food merchants’ lower willingness to stock due to an anticipated drop in domestic food prices after the nation enters WTO. In March of this year, supply of domestic rice fell into a period of shortage, yet the farm price of Japonica Paddy was contrarily on a downward decline. Adding the good harvest of the first season, the price of rice was on an expedited drop; after this period, the monthly average price stayed at a low level of NT$ 16/Kg. After November, due to a postponement in custom clearance, food merchants began to actively stock up the volume needed for the next half year; only then, the price of rice began to rise in a larger scale.

(II) Hogs

　　 The yearly average hog trading price was recorded as NT$ 47.14/Kg. Compared to last year, this average indicates a drop by 24.52%. This is mainly caused by sufficient supply of hog sources. Although the government has had notable achievements in pushing forward the husbandry-closure policy, enabling husbandry farmers of small non-economical scale farms to exit the husbandry industry, which caused the supply quantity of hogs to drop, this policy prompted the hog prices of January to August of last year to stay at high marks at around NT$ 60 to 70/Kg. On seeing the return of hog prices, hog farms still in business expanded their production and yielded an extra 100 thousand tons of supply in this year. Sufficient supply of hogs caused continuous low price and the price of hogs hovered around NT$ 40 to 50/Kg over the whole year.

(III) Meat Chickens

　　 The yearly average price of meat chicken at places of production was recorded as NT$ 32.21/Kg. Compared to last, a drop of 15.59% was recorded. This is due to a hike in the total supply constituted by a growth in domestic production and more then ten thousand tons of extra imports.

(IV) Chicken Eggs

　　 The yearly average price of chicken eggs at places of production was recorded as NT$ 23.41/Kg. Compared to the average of last year, this average indicates a drop of 18.77%. Due to excess production, the price of chicken eggs stayed low for the first half of the year. However, after a series of price-stabilizing measures implemented by the Poultry Association, R.O.C. and demands arose after Typhoon Bilis and Xangsane, prices of chicken eggs took a large scale incline; only the average over the whole year is still lower than that of last year.

(V) Vegetables

　　 Vegetable prices at places of production yielded more positive than negative growth over the year. This mainly due to unstable weather at midyear; this affected production of vegetables and caused prices of vegetables to hike. Among each individual item, radish had the highest growth at 46% and cauliflowers and sponge cucumber second with slightly more than 20%. Water spinach and French bean also had a growth around 10%. Garlic, in contrary, had a drop in prices by as much as 35% due to over-production.

(VI) Fruits

　　 Prices of fruits at places of production over the year had more growth than decline as compared to the average of last year. This is mainly due to unstable weather, which caused production of several categories of fruits to drop and overall prices to hike. Among each individual category of fruits, longgan had a low-production year; with reduced production volume, the price hiked 43%. Production of Wendan Pomelo dropped for nearly 30%. With the factors that its selling period during the mid-autumn festival season is rather short and active government promotion, the price of Wendan Pomelo at places of production took a hike by nearly 40%. The price of Lychee went up by 27%, Irwin Mango went up by nearly 20%, and domestic pineapple went down by 31% due to over-supply. Fluctuations in prices of other products are not significant.

(VII) Aqua Products

　　 The yearly average whole price of aqua products at places of production had more growth than decline. In which, the price at place of production for tuna hiked 62%. Due to cold weather, supply of milkfish was insufficient; therefore, the price at place of production took a large scale hike. However, in the second half of the year, supply of matured fish fries became available; therefore, the prices returned to stable. Consolidating prices over the year, the prices of milkfish still had a growth by 56% as compared to last year. Prices of Red Sea Bream and Red-barred rock-cod also had higher price by nearly 10%. Prices of Mackerel, on the other hand, dipped by 25%.

VI. Trading of Agricultural Products

　　 Based on custom clearance data, the total import/export value of this year is NS$ 288.3 billion, which registers a growth of 24.13% as compared to US$ 56.1 billion of last year. Trading of Agricultural Products also had a slight growth. The total import/export value was recorded at US$ 10.9 billion, which carries a growth of US$ 0.14 billion or 1.30% as compared to last year. In which, export shares US$ 3.28 billion or 2.21% of the total export value. Compared to last year, a slight decline of 0.34 percentage points is recorded. Exports are totaled in the value of US$ 7.59 billion, which take a 5.42% share of the total export value. Compared to last year, a decline of 1.47 percentage points has also been recorded. The trade deficit is recorded at US$ 4.31 billion; compared to last, a downsizing of US$ 0.22 billion or 4.78% was registered. Among which, fishes and related products and leathers and related products were the major items of export. Their export values individually shares over 25% of the total export value of agricultural products. 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 surveys, there are a total of 787,407 farming household in year 1999 in the Taiwan Area, which shares 12.09% of the total households in the Taiwan Area. There is approximately 3.75 million of population in the farming households, which takes up 17% of the total population. In this year, a total of 0.74 million of farming population was registered, which indicates a continuous decline by 4.64% or 0.47 percentage points and shares 7.08% 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$ 928 thousand in year 1999, which shows an increase by 5.19 as compared to the figure of 1998. In which, income from farming is averaged at NT$ 169 thousand, sharing 18.22%, and income from sources other than farming is averaged at NT$ 759 thousand, taking up 81.78%. Eliminating the factor of per household population, each person in farming household earned an average of NT$ 229 thousand, which signifies an increase of 8.05% as compared to the figure of last year.

IX. Agricultural Damages of and Relief for Natural Disasters

　　 A total of 12 natural disasters occurred in this year, causing an approximate loss of NT$ 14.365 billion of damages to agricultural, forestry, fishery, and husbandry industries and water-soil infrastructures in the Taiwan and Minnan Areas. In which, monsoon in February, frost in April, monsoon in July, Typhoon Bilis and Typhoon Xangsane caused the majority of damages. Typhoon Bilis, visited on the 22 ^nd of August, brought serious damages to Taitung, Hualien, Kaohsiung, Nantou, Ilan, and Taichung areas. According to statistics, a total of 17 thousand acres of crops were affected, 46 acres of farmlands were washed away, buried, or flooded by seawater, 302 animal and poultry structures collapsed, 232 fishing boats were damaged, and 69 acres of fish ponds were buried, collapses, or washed away. Adding up damages to water-soil infrastructure, recreational facilities relating to agricultural, fishery, and husbandry industries, and other relevant structures, a total damage of NT$ 6.976 billion was recorded. 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 52,479 household received cash assistances in the total of NT$ 0.984 billion for agricultural natural disaster relief. A total of 2,535 households received assistance from the relief loans in the total of NT$ 2.021 billion. These schemes lent tremendous help to farmers for replanting and rebuilding.