In order to boost international cooperation of organic agriculture and present fruitful accomplishment of Taiwan's dedication to organic agriculture, the Council of Agriculture (COA) sponsored the "Developing Organic Agriculture as New Business Opportunity for Small-scale Farmers” international workshop organized jointly by the Food and Fertilizer Technology Center for the Asian and Pacific Region and the National Ilan University on May 23 and 24, 2017. 11 speakers from 7 countries in the Asia-Pacific region namely Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan as well as 100 organic agriculture related representatives of professional scholars, farmers, agro-business, farmers' organizations, students and government officials participated in the workshop together.

　　In recent years, food security, food safety and environmental conservation have been the focus in the world, and consumers are in great demand of safe and quality agricultural products. Thus, organic agriculture was regarded as a holistic production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, ecology and welfare of human beings, contributing to global agricultural trend. Taiwan has initiated, trialed, demonstrated and promoted organic agriculture since 1986 and released Agricultural Production and Certification Act in 2007. Till the end of 2016, there are around 3,000 farmhouses and 7,000 hectares of farmland receiving organic certificate and implementing organic agriculture.       

　　 The COA stated that not only Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute and other District Agricultural Research and Extension were stations dedicated to studying organic farming and holding different demonstrative activities but the Council also plunged into the legislation of organic agricultural product management and certification system, such as "Imported Organic Agricultural Product and Organic Agricultural Processed Product Management Regulations", "Operating Guidelines in Review for Issuance of Document to Approve Organic Labeling of Imported Organic Agricultural Food Products and Organic Agricultural Food Processed Products", "Visiting Import Organic Agricultural Product Equivalence Country Verification Operation Guideline", and so on. What's more, the COA counseled, approved and authorized private organic certification institutes to commit themselves to organic production, promotion and inspection so that local organic agricultural products would increase the export and build up international cooperation. The organic cultivated area is expected to reach the target of 12,000 hectares in 2020.

　　With a view to enhance industrial development, the COA particularly sponsored Food and Fertilizer Technology Center for the Asian and Pacific Region to organize international workshop in Yilan County, during which organic agriculture technology in the Asia-Pacific region, current industrial development and best practices were selected for discussion. Together with the arrangement of field visit, the success of Taiwan's organic agriculture could be demonstrated, and transnational industry and technical cooperation would be created. 

The "Developing Organic Agriculture as New Business Opportunity for Small-scale Farmers” international workshop