Taiwan's Sweet corn Industry: A Case Study on Chaiyi county

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the cultivation situation, fresh production and marketing of sweet corn in the main production area of Chaiyi county. To elucidate the basic information of the sweet corn growers in sweet corn production area, special questionnaires were conducted. The information mainly included the following facets such as: the cultivation and field management which include key factors that affect the income of growers: varieties and fertilizer selection; optimal time for fertilizing and watering and other farm practices; the input of fertilizer, pesticide and labor force; the selection of marketing channel; the revenue and net income etc. Economic analysis was applied for the questionnaires via the Numerical Descriptive Measures. Analysis mainly focuses on the following aspects: cultivation management, production cost, growing scale, marketing channel and price of different grading product, income and profit etc. The results indicated that: the average cost of sweet corn production per hectare is NT$ 60,807.75, the revenue on average is NT$ 200,193 in 2010. The optima growing scale is1-1.5 hectare in Taibao city, Shuishang xiang and the neighborhood. In the facet of marketing channel selection, 60% of the farmers select the agricultural products wholesaler markets as the marketing channel, 22.5% corporate with the contractor for contract production, and 10% with farmers ship their product to Cooperative farm, only 7.5% of the farmers sell the sweet corn directly to the traditional market.