Farmers in northeastern Taiwan’s Yilan County recently formed a coalition to grow soybeans in a bid to revive local production of the crop, the source of such popular food items as soy sauce, soy milk and tofu.
Under the leadership of farmer Wu Shao-wen, 13 local farmers, some of whom had focused on growing rice in the past, began sowing seeds this week on a combined seven hectares of farmland in several Yilan townships.
Wu said that Taiwan is overreliant on imports of non-rice grains such as corn, wheat and soybeans. She added that growing such crops domestically could help reinvigorate Yilan’s soy sauce industry.
The soybean growing efforts in the northeastern county are in line with the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture’s policy of enhancing the nation’s farming self-sufficiency. Currently, Taiwan imports 68 percent of the food it consumes.
Chen Jen-pin, director of the Agriculture and Food Agency under the COA, said that since Taiwan’s rice supply exceeds local demand, farmers are being encouraged to grow other crops, which will be purchased at good prices by AFA-supported farmers’ associations nationwide.
To assist Wu’s project, the Taichung City-based Central Taiwan Agricultural Cooperative provided farming machines for the sowing and harvesting of non-rice grains. Such equipment had never before been used in the cultivation of these particular crops on the Lanyang Plain, where the farmers’ plots are located.
I-Mei Foods Co., among other local enterprises, has also announced it will buy products from local farmers like Wu. The company said it will pay higher prices for domestically grown soybeans, which it will use to make non-genetically modified soy milk.
Taiwan imports around 2.3 million tonnes of soybeans per year, with domestic production reaching only 2,724 tonnes on 1,652 hectares of farmland in 2015. Chen hopes local farmers can increase these numbers to 50,000 tonnes on 20,000 hectares by 2020. (KTJ-E)
Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mofa.gov.tw