The Political Economy of the Agriculture-in-My-Mind Program in Taipei County
Date Issued
2010
Date
2010
Author(s)
Li, Cheng-Hsun
Abstract
In the process of economical development in Taiwan, the agriculture had once played the key role as the mainstream industry. Agriculture provides food provisions which are indispensable for the people in Taiwan. And a lot of job opportunities have been created in the process of marketing agricultural products. However, due to the fact that the non-agricultural industries have developed rapidly, plus the vigorous development of international economics and trade, the industrial structure in Taiwan has been rebuilt. The agriculture can no longer hold its mainstream position and has been gradually replaced by the industry and commerce.
The central government has started to promote the policy of fallow lands to follow the trend of industrial structure change in the current environment. The autarkic policy is replaced by the self-production and supply-demand balance of imports. The purpose is to reduce agricultural output and to guide the agricultural population to move on toward industry or commerce. However, implementing the policy of fallow lands has resulted in a lot of cultivated lands being left empty and deserted, the rural population aging, farmlands losing their vitality, and environment of rural areas being withered.
In the recent years, because of the global warming, climates around the world have been extremely abnormal. Droughts and floods have intensified globally. Many major places of agricultural production have been influenced by climate changes and can no longer produce crops normally. Most of foods in Taiwan are imported and therefore this situation should be seen as a warning. The importance of the existence of local agriculture is once again being put under the spotlight.
The Taipei County Government developed the “Agriculture-in-My-Mind” policy in 2009 in order to solve the negative situation caused by the policy of fallow lands, while seeing clearly the necessity of preserving production capacity for local agriculture due to the global warming, plus the unemployment caused by the economical tsunami in 2008. This policy aims to re-create vitality for unused farmlands and provide job opportunities to the citizens of Taipei County, by combining the issue of reactivating and reusing fallow lands and the issue of unemployment, to turn retirement from agriculture into engagement in agriculture.
All policies are developed because of needs and expectation of ideals. However, they can not be made based on one single factor of demands. From having an idea for a policy to the establishment of that policy, considerations for political, economical, social, and environmental factors are usually involved, while historical backgrounds and the most suitable requirements now and in the future should also be taken into account. The political and economical thinking, vitality created by the policy, strategies developed for the policy, process of policy implementation, and usage of farmlands from the Agriculture-in-My-Mind policy by the Taipei County Government are of high research values and can be further explored.
Subjects
the Agriculture-in-My-Mind
temptation
Type
thesis
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