The goal of agricultural production is to maintain a balance between production and sales, ensure food supplies, improve production quality and achieve a harmonious status between human life and ecology. In 2007, the successive typhoons and torrential rains have caused a decrease in overall agricultural production. The rise of feed prices has resulted in the reduction of animal and fowl products including pigs, chicken, ducks, etc. The forest industry also suffers from a smaller yield of byproducts. In terms of fish products, the loss of fishing resources has caused the drop in fishery catches in the offshore and coastal areas. Natural disasters have adversely impacted the price of agricultural products and place-of-production price has, in general, risen. Below is a brief summary of the status of the agricultural industry:

A. Agricultural Production Indexes
      The 97.43 ( 100 in 2006) annual agricultural production index for the year 2007 saw a 2.57% drop from 2006. In categorized analysis of various industries, farming products showed a decrease of 6.48%. Forest production also went down by 31.48%. A 2.43% drop was reported in animal products. Fish products showed a 4.97% increase.

B. Agricultural Production Structures
      The total agricultural production value was NT$388.3 billion in 2007, 3% higher than the year before, when a total production value of NT$377 billion was reported. Fish production has grown by NT$18.6 billion, and animal production also increased by NT$6.6 billion. Farm products, however, dropped by NT$4.3 billion.
       A further analysis by category shows that Farm products accounted for 43.36% at NT$168.4 billion, 2.50% less than 2006. In separate farm production value structures, fruit made up the largest portion with 38.96%, followed by 27.90% of vegetables, rice 15.50%, flowers 7.34%, special crops 4.68% and coarse cereals and mushrooms at 3.73% and 1.89% respectively. Compared to 2006, rice and fruit production dropped by 1.51% and 0.22% respectively. Vegetables increased 2.40%. Animal production value was NT$124.7 billion, representing 32.11%, 5.56% higher than the previous year. In separate animal and fowl production value structures, pigs topped the list with 45.72%; fowls came second at 32.20%, eggs 12.63% and other animal products 9.45%. Compared to 2006, pigs saw a decrease of 1.24%, fowls an increase of 0.55%. Fishery production was NT$94.7 billion, occupying 24.40%, 10.61% over 2006. In separate fishery production value structures, deep-sea fishing made up the highest at 50.47%, followed by inland aquaculture’s 29.80%, offshore fishing’s 9.09%, coastal fishery’s 5.78%, and sea farming’s 4.84%. Inland fishing accounted for an insignificant proportion. Compared to 2006, offshore fishing and coastal fishery decreased by 2.21% and 1.14% respectively; whilst deep-sea fishing and inland aquaculture saw an increase of 2.12% and 1.13% respectively.

C. Profile of Agricultural Productions
      Frequent typhoons and torrential rains in 2007 have led to a smaller yield for the agricultural production as a whole. Total rice production was 1.36 million tons, 12.49% less than the year before. Production of coarse cereals such as peanuts and red beans fell by more than 20%, and sweet potatoes decreased by approximately 15%. Feed corn and food corn fell by approximately 10%. Special crops such as sesame seeds and tobacco saw a slump of around 45% and 20% respectively Whilst bananas, mangoes, wax apples, persimmons, lichees, pears and dates saw an increased annual production of 10% to 30% when compared to 2006, most fruit suffered a drop in production ranging from 10% to 30%, including ponkans, tankans, wentan pomelos, liuchengs, guavas, grapes, plums, carambolas, papayas and passion fruits. Vegetable production dropped in general except onions, which saw an increase of about 40%. Production of leeks, asparagus, water convolvulus , Chinese cabbages, oriental pickling melons, winter gourds, eggplants, tomatoes, peas, vegetable soy beans, melons and cantaloupes, etc. fell in a range of 20% to 40%. Animal, fowl and related products varied: pigs dropped 1.80% lower than 2006; cows dropped by 2.60%; sheep and goats decreased by 8.93%; chicken fell 2.89%; and goat’s milk dropped by 4.51%. Production of duck and duck eggs increased, however, by 3.81% and 8.81% respectively. Total fish catches were 1.50 million tons, a 16.84% increase from 2006. Deep-sea fishing increased 29.90% and offshore fishing dropped by 12.59%. There were 26,000 cubic meters of timber produced, 2% less than the year before. Forestry byproducts, such as raw bamboo shoots and fruits of tree, stood at 27,000 tons, 12.64% less than the previous year.

D. Prices of Agricultural Products
      Prices of agricultural products fluctuate with the volume of production. As mentioned in the preceding section, prices at the place of production mostly went up in 2007 due to the overall drop in production volume. Prices for unhusked Penglai rice at place of production dropped slightly by 2.91% due to the stable supply of unhusked rice. The good harvest of peanuts in the second crop season of 2006 led to an increased supply and a price drop of 27%. Except for scallion, which had a 26% price fall, all vegetables had a higher price mainly due to the serious loss suffered at the place of production resulting from frequent typhoons and torrential rains. Eggplants and tomatoes saw the highest rising percentage of 44%. Radishes, carrots, potatoes, leeks, garlic bulbs, cabbages, Chinese cabbages, leaf mustards, wax gourds, bitter gourds, bottle gourds and green peppers, etc. saw a hike of 20% to 40% in price. The prices of gingers, spinaches, cauliflowers, cucumbers, rag gourds, peas and yard-long peas also climbed by around 10%. Average fruit prices at place of production were, for most items, lower than the previous year. The price at place of production for bananas, pineapples, water melons, mangoes, longans, lichees and papayas had dropped by 20-30%, though guava prices increased 10%. In terms of flowers, an overall price rise in the place of production was noticed when compared to the average of 2006. Chrysanthemum prices increased by more than 20%; Flamingo flower and Gypsophila saw a hike of 10%. For animal and fowl products, the continuous increase in feed price has resulted in a drop in the number of raised heads. As a result, the price of pigs climbed by 4.80%. Price at place of production for both broilers and chicken eggs both increased by 10%. Prices for most fish products increased, of which milkfish, crimson sea breams, yellow croakers, yellow sea breams, golden threadfin breams, bulls-eyes and butterfish, etc. rose by 20% to 30%. Grass carps and bighead carps dropped by 10% to 20%.

E. Farming Households and Employed Population
      As of the end of 2006, there were 756,366 farming households in Taiwan , constituting 10.27% of the total number of households in the Taiwan region, and they accounted for 14.18%, around 3.23 million people, of the entire population. In 2007, 543,000 people were employed in agriculture, about 5.27% of the total employed population; 12,000 people or 2.16% less than 2006.

F. Farming Household Incomes
      In 2006, the average farming household income was NT$941,000, which was 80.43% of the average non-farming household income and a 7.85% increase compared to 2005. Farming earnings, including various agricultural subsidies, constituted 21.46% at NT$202.000. This was a NT$21,000 or 11.61% growth from 2005. Incomes from non-agricultural sources accounted for 78.54% at NT$739,000. The average personal income in farming households was NT$ 246,000 in 2006, 6.15% more than 2005.