The Organic Agriculture Promotion Law has passed the third reading! Cai Peihui: a method suitable for subtropical organic farming should be developed and a link between production and marketing should be established.

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The Organic Agriculture Promotion Law was officially read for the third time yesterday (8). DPP legislator Cai Peihui described the landmark significance of the law to Taiwan's organic agriculture as an "epoch-making day". The Council of Agriculture also swore that at present, the certified area of organic agriculture in China has reached more than 7700 hectares, and the registered area of friendly farming has reached more than 1300 hectares. Now that the promotion law has been passed, the Council of Agriculture has the responsibility to increase the proportion of organic agriculture. Chen Jizhong, vice chairman of the Council of Agriculture, said, "I hope to move towards 15000 hectares as soon as possible."

Cai Peihui: it is clear that counseling measures should be taken for organic agriculture.

Tsai Pei-hui says that Taiwan is located in a subtropical environment. "the subtropical climate produces organics. if there is to be a special agricultural law, (the government) should strive to break through." The relevant breeding and the improvement of farming facilities all need the support of the government, and it is stressed that there are many links in the production process of organic agriculture that need to be broken through, which need the full assistance of the government in the future. Otherwise, "Organic agriculture in Taiwan only accounts for 0.8% of the total agricultural area, compared with 5%-8% in advanced countries, we still have a lot of room for efforts."

Cai Peihui stressed that healthy and friendly production links should be established from land to consumers. In response, the Council of Agriculture said that the Organic Agriculture Promotion Law stipulates that the competent authorities should take counseling measures for organic agriculture, in which the central competent authority should set up task groups, put forward organic agriculture promotion plans every four years, encourage the establishment of organic agriculture promotion areas, and at the same time assist in the provision of organic production and marketing technology, equipment and materials. Schools and armed forces are encouraged to give priority to the procurement of local organic agricultural products, so as to gradually expand organic agriculture.

However, how to implement the above-mentioned policy objectives of the Organic Agriculture Promotion Law? How much money will the Council of Agriculture inject into it in the future? Chen Jizhong said that about NT $1.8 billion has been invested in organic agriculture this year, of which green land payments account for the largest number, as well as organic materials, organic verification fees and other related subsidies. "there will be more (funds) in the future."

And how can the increased budget be further invested in organic agricultural production? Chen Jizhong further explained that in the first step, the Council of Agriculture is actively dealing with organic labels and will complete the voting work this year. In order to further promote the area of organic agriculture, the certification fee for organic agriculture will be further reduced in the future. "the Agriculture and Food Department has planned to reduce the rate of reduction." The actual results of the reduction will be announced to the public again. Chen Jizhong said that in the future, the results will be counted every four years and explained to the public.

Chen Jizhong: in line with international standards, consolidate and promote progress every four years

Chen Jizhong further revealed that after the passage of the Organic Agriculture Promotion Law, the biggest policy goal of the Council of Agriculture is to be in line with international standards and achieve organic equality.

Chen said that organic agricultural products will also be involved in import and export trade, but at present, Taiwan has not been recognized as organic equality in other countries, so that the export of domestic organic agricultural products is facing the dilemma of "not being sold in the name of organic." at present, the Council of Agriculture is starting to negotiate with countries such as the European Union, India, and the United States, hoping that domestic organic standards can be in line with international standards as soon as possible. "it will be concluded within two years."

The Council of Agriculture stressed that the Organic Agriculture Promotion Law is actually a special law tailored for the development of domestic organic agriculture, and will consolidate the progress of organic agriculture every four years in the future, and will actively expand the cultivated area of organic agriculture.

Organic farmers: worry that "there are more sticks than carrots"

However, the "Organic Agriculture Promotion Law" was quickly read for the third time, and the news was introduced into the organic agriculture industry, but it sparked an uproar discussion. Organic farmers affirmed that the law should be well-intentioned, but after carefully studying the contents of the law, they had to worry that "sticks are more than carrots." in the framework of the promotion law, which constantly emphasizes "management" and "penalties", the effect of "promoting organic agriculture" may be limited.

Zhang, a farmer surnamed organic, said bluntly that according to the current law, many budgets are invested in organic agriculture, "but in fact, organic agriculture is an appropriate amount of investment, or even low investment in agriculture." We cannot operate according to the thinking that the more we invest, the more we gain; on the contrary, we should reduce unnecessary facilities and reduce the intensity of management before it can be achieved. "now a lot of budgets are forced to be invested in tutoring, testing, and education. but it doesn't make much sense to the actual production of organic agriculture." I'm afraid it's the icing on the cake.

Zhang more sighs that in this law, we can obviously see that the vision of organic agriculture and management penalties have been strengthened. "I hope the vision is vague and the penalties are clear." In the ears of organic farmers, it is very powerless.

Organic farmers surnamed Zeng further thought about organic agriculture from the perspective of "promoting and popularizing" organic agriculture, and pointed out that organic farmers' imagination of the Organic Agriculture Promotion Law is that it can fundamentally improve the pollution and yield of adjacent fields of organic agriculture. it is of real help to organic farmers, and only by taking into account the production needs of farmers can we have a chance to further talk about promotion and promotion.

In terms of policy direction, we once wanted to expand the cultivated area of organic agriculture, but according to the current laws and regulations, the role of organic and friendly agriculture is still vague and may even have a crowding-out effect. therefore, I wonder if it is possible to make use of friendly subsidies, the neighboring fields around the reward organic fields are also gradually operating towards friendly farming methods, and may even gradually become organic fields in the future. This operation can not only reduce the production risk of organic agriculture, but also increase the organic farming area at one stroke, which is the so-called "promotion".

Chen Yiting: the atmosphere of organic and non-organic opposition should be improved.

Chen Shih-ting, an associate researcher at the Agricultural Policy Research Center, points out that from the point of view of the whole set of laws and regulations, "the increase is in penalties, but the significance of promotion cannot be seen." In the future, when the penalty increases, the risk of investing in organic agriculture increases, and so does the risk cost that farmers have to bear, and even in the legal thinking of "strengthening management", it does not help to reduce organic farmers' sense of being frustrated by prevention of fouls; in all far from the current talk of "promotion".

"if you really want to promote it, the antagonism should be improved." Chen Ching-ting believes that the law on the promotion of organic agriculture should have a way to improve the antagonistic relationship between organic and flying organic in the past, and even from the macro perspective of agricultural development, what role organic agriculture plays in this should be considered.

Most of the organic farmers and promoters of organic agriculture were looking forward to the Organic Agriculture Promotion Law, hoping to develop a new way for organic agriculture, but now that the third reading of the law has been passed, Chen Ching-ting has no choice but to say, "now that the mother law has been passed, we can only accept it first." It is hoped that the continuation of the sub-law and the detailed rules for implementation will respond to the doubts of all walks of life at present.

Organic agriculture development milestone! After seven years of efforts, the Law on the Promotion of Organic Agriculture is expected to be read and passed next Wednesday.

The first Reading version of the Law on the Promotion of Organic Agriculture

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