MySheen

What is the green environment payment policy to the land, and how should this policy increase people's sense of trust?

Published: 2024-12-22 Author: mysheen
Last Updated: 2024/12/22, (Wen / Liu Wanyu (Professor, Department of Forestry, Chung Hsing University) / Agriculture and Food Department (data photo) Taiwan has implemented the rice insurance purchase policy since 1974. In the past, the goal of rice insurance purchase policy was to stabilize rice prices, encourage rice production, and maintain rice farmers' income. This policy may lead to disguised encouragement of low quality and high quality.

Taiwan has implemented the rice insurance purchase policy since 1974. in the past, the goal of rice insurance purchase policy was to stabilize rice price, encourage rice production and maintain rice farmers' income. This policy may lead to a disguised incentive for low-quality, high-yield rice production and the problem of budget crowding, and if a regulatory mechanism for purchasing rice based on rice quality is established, the government will have to bear the management costs. Therefore, the government hopes to gradually adjust to the environment-friendly payment policy, the government's agricultural policy "New Agricultural Movement" in 2006 to develop organic agriculture and promote healthy eating. In 2017, the "key points of organic and environment-friendly farming subsidies" were drawn up to verify the farmland that passed and produced organic crops in accordance with the agricultural production and verification management law. The direct payment policy for rice cultivation was launched on a trial basis in 2016, and the green environment payment policy was formally implemented in 2018.

In 2018, we conducted in-depth interviews with rice farmers and farmers' associations to further understand the problems of actual implementation. For farmers, they are concerned about whether the price of rice is optimistic, whether the problem of overproduction is enough to alleviate, and whether the price is like the level of three years ago. It is also suggested whether agricultural administrative units can give more publicity through the news media when there is overproduction, so as to prevent too many farmers from sowing rice continuously. When rice farmers turn to miscellaneous grain policy, they mainly consider two aspects: (1) whether the soil is suitable for transplanting, and (2) whether the production and marketing is smooth. Although the land in Taiwan is small, but there are great regional differences, some areas are only suitable for farming rice and fallow, and the areas with high soil water viscosity can not grow other crops smoothly, so the feasibility of conversion is low. The problem of production and marketing has always been a test of government units.At present, many special areas are planned to solve the problem of production and marketing. most farmers turn to other crops and hand them over to peasant associations, which often cause the problem of excess inventory of peasant associations, and their low willingness to purchase will naturally affect whether farmers are willing to switch to work or choose fallow farming. In addition, rice farmers are very concerned about the rise in seedling prices. for rice farmers, the surge in costs has led to a reduction in income. Rice farmers question why seedling prices have risen instead of falling, and whether seedling operators have jointly raised prices.

Extended reading of "what is meant by" green environment payment to the ground "?

Secondly, we interviewed several heads of peasant associations, and the peasant associations expressed their willingness to cooperate with the government in implementing an important role in agricultural policy, to help promote the various government measures and to handle many agriculture-related businesses. The purchase and management of public grain is mainly carried out by the peasant association. Under the condition of overproduction of rice production, the quantity of public grain increases greatly, and the warehouse of the peasant association overflows; and farmers need to apply for direct payment of rice farming through the peasant association or choose to pay public grain. The front line is the main window to grasp the information on rice production in this period. However, the operation manpower of the peasant association is limited, and it is difficult for farmers to check whether the farmers' qualification for hosting the host is abnormal at the same time. With the implementation of direct subsidies for rice farming, the peasant associations belonging to the important rice producing areas in the central and southern parts of the country clearly felt the problem of overproduction. Landlords began to return to planting rice to receive subsidies for many farmland that did not produce rice in the past. There is also an increase in the second-stage cropping yield in some areas. On the other hand, the peasant associations also operate their own grain, and if the purchase price is good, it will indeed help farmers to produce high-quality rice and receive direct payment for rice production.

Production and marketing has always been   to improve "rice surplus and miscellaneous grain shortage"

Under the conditions encouraged by the government, many peasant associations have set up deed zones to achieve the effect of "consistent production and marketing", which is very conducive to the development of local agriculture. A few farmers' associations are engaged in rice import and export business. Rice imports are imported by private grain merchants and entrusted to private farmers' associations to take care of them, while rice exports are exported by farmers' associations to Japan or the Chinese market. the export volume is small and the strict market control often restricts the import of rice through health and safety inspection.

The green environment payment policy has three objectives: (1) to adjust the industrial structure of rice to balance supply and demand; (2) to reward key development crops and maintain food security; and (3) to transform green environment payment to achieve land-friendly farming. This policy has the advantages of saving public grain storage costs, increasing farmers' income, promoting farmers' concept of green payment, improving high-quality production incentives, not increasing government expenditure and so on.

According to the statistics of the Agriculture and Food Administration of the Agricultural Commission of the Executive Yuan, there are about 745517 hectares of cultivated land in Taiwan in 2017. The cultivated area of individual crops is about 270000 hectares in the first and second stages of rice cultivation, 150000 hectares in vegetable production in recent years, and 180000 hectares in fruit. Special crops (tea, tobacco, sugar cane, sesame, rapeseed, cassava, cotton, rush, fragrant crops, Qiongma, yam, etc.): a total of less than 23000 hectares. Miscellaneous grains (sweet potato, wheat, corn, millet, sorghum, peanuts, soybeans, red beans, mung beans, etc.): a total of about 77000 hectares.

According to the green environment payment policy to the land, the goal is to improve the situation of "rice surplus and miscellaneous grain shortage", so as to tie in with the large granary plan, increase domestic miscellaneous grain production, strengthen the link between production, marketing and supply, and achieve the target of 100000 hectares of miscellaneous grain area in 2020, an increase of 30, 000 hectares over the current. According to the statistics of agricultural administration units, "for every 10,000 hectares of miscellaneous grain planted, it will bring 6 billion of the output value of the upper, middle and lower reaches." the output value of 6 billion covers the seedling industry, machinery industry, fertilizers, chemical pesticides, and harvesting. According to a preliminary assessment, about 300000 farmers and 320000 hectares of farmland have benefited from the "land green environment payment policy". The income per hectare can be increased by 5 to 15000 per season.

In terms of farmers' income comparison and choice. According to the "insured purchase" of rice, public grain can be paid per hectare. Take the first phase of production of 6200 kilograms per hectare as an example. If rice farmers choose to pay public grain in full, the total income will reach about 144400 yuan, including a subsidy of 2 yuan per kilogram. If the production of rice farmers is more than 6200 kg, some rice can be sold to grain merchants in addition to paying public grain, and the total income will be more than 144440 yuan.

The rice "insured purchase" policy has the function of supporting the market price of rice, which is generally maintained above 21.6 yuan per kilogram of surplus grain. Under the current policy of "direct payment for rice farming", 13500 yuan per hectare can be received for the first stage of rice cultivation. If the average rice farmer's income is higher than 144400 yuan of public grain, he will choose to receive the direct payment. It can be calculated that the market price of rice is (144400-13500) / 6200-21.11 yuan. Lower than the purchase price of surplus grain of 21.6 yuan. If the market price of the first phase of rice farming in that year is higher than the purchase price of surplus grain, rice farmers will generally choose to receive "direct payment for rice cropping". If the rice farmers who produce high-quality rice, take Hualien and Taitung in the eastern region as an example, the market price is generally higher, and it is more advantageous to choose the policy of "direct payment of rice farming". Whether receiving "direct payment of rice farming" increases the income of rice farmers compared with "insured purchase" mainly depends on whether the rice price is optimistic at the time of rice harvest in this region, but the decisive factor of rice price lies in the supply and demand of the market.

Rice production is paid directly to VS for insured purchase.

As for the influence of the two-track parallel policy of "rice direct payment" and "insured purchase", when the rice market price is good, rice farmers choose to receive "rice direct payment" to improve the income of rice farmers. It is precisely because of this incentive that when the market price is good, rice farmers are more willing to produce, which may lead to an increase in unit yield or an increase in production area, while rice farmers who apply for "direct payment for rice farming", if it is later found that the price is not good or cannot be sold directly to consumers, they can also regret not getting direct payment and hand it over to grain merchants for purchase.

If the number of rice farmers receiving "direct payment for rice farming" increases, the number of stocks purchased by grain merchants will also increase, which may lead to a decline in rice market prices, which is not conducive to a rise in rice prices, until grain merchants expect stocks to begin to decrease.

According to the statistics of agricultural administration units, before the implementation of the direct payment policy for rice farming, the average income of rice farmers in the first stage in recent years was 80421 yuan per hectare, and more than 80, 000 yuan per year, while the average income of rice farmers in the second stage was 46435 yuan per hectare, but almost all of them were less than 45000 yuan. Therefore, from the point of view of the income of rice farmers, when agricultural administrative units encouraged fallow farming subsidies in the past, the subsidy of 45000 yuan per hectare per period could effectively increase the willingness of second-stage rice farmers to take fallow farming.

However, for first-stage rice farmers, the amount of subsidy per hectare needs to be more than 80, 000 yuan. In the past, there have been cases of water shortage and drought, and the amount of subsidy for fallow farming is about 85000 yuan. Therefore, we estimate the possible effects of the implementation of the green environment payment policy (direct payment for rice farming): (1) an increase in rice planting area: it is estimated that the income per hectare will increase by 5,000 to 14,000 yuan, and the incentive for production may be increased. It may cause fallow farmland not to be converted into miscellaneous crops but to restore rice cultivation. However, due to the limited influence of good land and agriculture and industry, the impact of the second stage may be greater than that of the first stage. (2) the inducement of fallow is reduced: the second phase is the main reason for rice farmers to carry out fallow, mainly due to poor weather conditions. after the implementation of the direct payment policy for rice farming, the income level will be increased, the amount of production and maintenance will remain unchanged in 45000, and the willingness to fallow will be greatly reduced. (3) the incentive of conversion is reduced: after the implementation of the direct payment policy for rice farming, it is estimated that the income level of rice farmers will be improved. If we take the conversion of hard corn as an example, the profit per hectare is about $15000, the payment amount is $60, 000, and the income from conversion to hard corn is about $75000. It is lower than the level of rice cropping in the first stage but higher than that in the second cropping stage, which may cause the conversion of the first cropping stage to be more difficult, and the willingness to turn to the second cropping stage will be higher.

The policy of "green environment payment to land" is the initial stage of Taiwan's agricultural environmental policy. At present, the effectiveness analysis of this policy still needs to be further examined. For this agricultural policy, which can be called an innovative concept, it is inevitable to have many doubts from the public, individual farmers and even consumers. However, according to the policy name and the concept of principal axis, the agricultural green payment system should be combined with the ecological environment, and then, as the direction of promoting agricultural environmental policy, it still shows that the government attaches importance to the multi-functional value of agriculture. it can also enhance the awareness of the public and farmers about the versatility of agriculture. During the implementation of the policy, it is still necessary to carefully check whether the policy deviates from the main axis of the policy, and it is suggested that the government should also strengthen the explanation of the significance of the payment of environmental services and enhance people's trust in the government. as the basis for expanding and promoting the policy of environmental services payment in the future.

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