The development trend of organic agriculture in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Chung, Ruey-Chen, 鍾瑞貞
• Other Authors: Chiang, Ying-Chih
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/99906443676312457872

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 農業經濟學研究所 === 92 === Agriculture has been the foundation of Chinese people for a long time. As the development of economy, we have created the so called “economic miracle” in Taiwan. However, the practice of conventional agriculture not only puts the nature in risk, but also jeopardizes the quality of life for human beings. The organic agriculture has become popular due to the increase of income and living standard, the change of food-consuming habit and preference, and the environmental protection and consumer sense. This study is to investigate the development trend of organic agriculture in Taiwan. After organizing and analyzing, the results of the study are as follows: Currently, the professional, complete organic, self-owned land and property is the major management pattern of organic agriculture in Taiwan. Most of them have spouse or family member and employees to support the operations in the farm. Many of the farms have plant nursery and water-storage devices. The composite area is popular so that most farmers like to have one. The major cultivated or intended-to-grow crop is vegetable while the major management pattern is “professional organic” and the largely planned item is “biological education.” The most popular certification agency has been the Mokich Okada International Association (MOA) and the Tse-Xin Organic Agricultural Foundation (TOAF); both are accepted and supported by the farmers because of their idea of promotion assistance, respect of life, and sale support. The blight problems still bother farmers and the cultivation techniques, weed prevention, and composite-making technology are to be improved. The sales of organic products are via the group organization, supermarket, wholesale center, and specialized shop. Most of the organic farmers will join the unified sale group, where profits are expected within one to three years, and profit increase are common in four to six years. Most of the farmers like to raise investment, expand farm size and search for new customers; that indicates they are confident about organic agriculture. The main reason of unpopularity of organic products has been lack of knowledge to the organic products. It is apparent that enhancing education to the consumer is an effective means to promote sales of organic products. The most important motivation of continuing organic agriculture is concerned with the nature environment and the concern of health. Profit-pursuing is not a main objective in this regard. According to the results found in the study, we finally made some suggestions to the government, certification agency and those who are interested in the organic agriculture. Keywords: economic miracle, organic agriculture, certification agency, blight, consumer.