《TAIPEI TIMES》 Young farmers awarded Council of Agriculture prizes

By Yang Yuan-ting and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, staff writer

Eighty-six young farmers were on Friday awarded prizes under the Council of Agriculture’s Hundred Young Farmers project.

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The prowess of the farmers, aged 37 on average, highlight the project’s success in fostering a younger generation of agriculture professionals, the council said.

One prize went to a women’s group from Chiayi County, whose executive officer, Lin Chia-ju （林家如）, a mother of four, said that tending a farm does not conflict with raising children.

You have a flexible schedule, and the children can experience how hard their parents work when helping out in the field, Lin said.

“Children who learn how to farm will not pick up bad habits,” she added.

Another winning group, comprised of National Chung Hsing University students, has cultivated vegetables with low levels of potassium that it said would be more suitable for people with kidney diseases.

The group’s general manager, Hsieh Hsin （謝欣）, said that people with kidney problems are usually advised to boil vegetables before stir-frying them, leading to nutritional loss and a less savory taste.

Hsieh said the group, which offers delivery services to subscribers, was “very moved” when they received letters from people with kidney problems thanking the students for developing and marketing the vegetables.

Wei Cheng-lin （味正琳）, a computer engineer-turned-farmer, said his former job took a toll on his health so he moved back to Nantou County to change careers.

After initial training with the Taichung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station, Wei began planting flat-leaved vanilla, and his business soon started to flourish, he said.

He later also opened a shop that sells sweets using vanilla from his farm, Wei added.

Minster of Agriculture Chen Chi-chung （陳吉仲） said all award winners had been rigorously vetted and their success shows that they are the paragon of agriculture in their respective fields.

Young farmers shoulder the hope of Taiwan’s agriculture for a successful future, Chen said.

They are the decisionmakers that determine evolution of the sector in the next decades, he added.

Chen said the council would spare no effort in providing young farmers with technical assistance, a sales network and, in case they need them, financial loans.

Chen said that extreme weather patterns would likely lead to an era of high food prices.

Unlike many countries that are seeking to increase food imports, Taiwan aims to increase the amount of food it exports to stabilize domestic prices, he said.

Chen said that the reorganization of global supply chains is also affecting agriculture, and young farmers must take note of that trend to ensure the sustainable development of the sector in Taiwan.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES