Taipei: Prompt, positive and encouraging steps should be taken by all governments including Sri Lanka to woo back the younger generation drifting away from agriculture to other lucrative employment, said Director General (DG), Department of International Affairs, Council of Agriculture, Vincent Lin.
In response to a query by Sunday Observer Business for reasons for youth to shun agricultural jobs, he said agri jobs are not held in high esteem in society. “To overcome this, Taiwan is taking several steps such as offering youth low cost loans to buy vehicles, agri equipment and offering tabs and computers free.”
The DG also highlighted another issue where the average age of Taiwanese agri sector employees is around 63 years of age. “Hence we need more youngsters for the agro sector to maintain food security.”
Taiwan also has over 300 lucrative farmer societies that provide low cost credit to farmers, less than 3% or even at zero interest. When a farmer obtains a loan they are given a PhD agri graduate as a mentor to ensure that they do agriculture scientifically.
These associations also have valuable land banks which they provide to cultivate. “These lands are strictly not provided for non agricultural purposes.”
Commenting on Taiwanese exports he said, “Last year despite the Covid-19 pandemic Taiwan had a record 6 billion US dollars as revenue and of this 30% came from horticulture exports mainly to Europe and Japan.”
He said that they like to share their advanced technology with developing countries such as Sri Lanka to produce higher yields in agriculture.