A Comparative Study on Rice Production Technology in Solomon Islands and Taiwan

• Main Authors: Belden Taki, 塔貝登
• Other Authors: Wen-Chi Huang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/83469853041048253127

碩士 === 國立屏東科技大學 === 熱帶農業暨國際合作研究所 === 94 === This study is investigating the underlying causes that contribute to the low rice production in Solomon Island and to find ways of improving production by comparing the production technologies in Solomon Island and Taiwan. It is hoped that from the results of this study, recommendations can be forwarded to Solomon Island’s government for consideration. Agriculture production had been threatened by labor supply shortage due to rapid development in the industry and service sectors. The demand for their products and services also increases causing an increase in wage. This high wage is pulling away labor from agriculture sector. To sustain production, many countries such as United States, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and others, adopted farm mechanization policies as a substitution for human labor to increase productivity. Many Asian countries such as Taiwan, Korea, and Japan for instance, due to small farm sizes, adopted small machineries which can be operated in areas less than a hectare. The use of farm mechanization brought benefits to the countries by increasing production as well as improving the living standards of many farm families. A study was done in one of the nine provinces of Solomon Island, namely Makira Ulawa Province (MUP), in the summer of 2005. The study was done in the form of a survey. Questionnaires were drawn up containing thirty-five questions. These questions were divided into four main major sections: Information on farmer, Farming information, Marketing information, and Others. The main focuses of these questions were to look at farmer’s constraints and labor productivity. One hundred and forty-seven (147) farmers were involved in this study. A research on Taiwan agriculture was also done using secondary data. Data collected were mainly on rice cultivation. These data were used to make a comparison with Solomon Islands’ situation to draw some conclusions that can achieve the objectives of this study. This study is divided into five sections: Introduction, Theoretical Basis and Literature Reviews, Research Methodology, Results and Discussions, and Conclusions which include Recommendations and Future Researches. From this study we found out that production technology used by Taiwan is quite different from that used in Solomon Islands. Taiwan has shifted from hand tools to machineries while Solomon Island is still using simple hand tools. Although both countries experienced labor shortage in farming (population per household was 3.93 for Taiwan and more than 4 for Solomon Islands), Taiwan’s average harvested area per farmer was 0.17 hectares (ha) while Solomon Islands is only 0.12 ha. In increasing production, Taiwan has to increase labor productivity by adopting farm mechanization. The farm machinery most commonly used by Taiwan farmers has been the power-tiller. We also found that low labor productivity in the Solomon Island was also influenced by other factors rather than the production factors alone, such as inadequate transportation, poor accessibility to milling factories; inadequate extension services, pest and diseases, and most of the activities in rice cultivation are laborious.