At the Cabinet's weekly meeting Thursday, Premier Lai Ching-te received a briefing from the Council of Agriculture (COA) on efforts to promote organic and ecofriendly farming practices. Following the briefing, the premier said the organic agriculture promotion act was promulgated May 30 and will come into force a year from that date. In the meantime, the council should create secondary legislation for the act in a manner that meets the industry's expectations for the development of organic farming in Taiwan.
According to the COA, the act includes provisions on guidance for the industry, management of agricultural products, and bilateral equivalence arrangements on trade of organic products with other countries. In the future, the council will draft organic agriculture promotion plans on a regular basis to serve as guidelines for each stage of the organic farming development work.
Premier Lai instructed the COA to publicize the promotion plans using all channels at its disposal. The council should also continue pushing other measures including "green payments" for environmentally beneficial farming practices, farmers health insurance for the people actually engaged in farming, and a farmers occupational injury insurance scheme to be launched in November. The results of these measures must be reviewed on a rolling basis so that more agricultural workers can understand and ensure the protection of their rights, he said.