Due to an especially dry season this year, farm irrigation on the Jianan Plain in southern Taiwan will be suspended at the start of 2021, the Central Emergency Operation Center (CEOC) announced Wednesday (Nov. 25).
The irrigation restriction means that the region will have no rice harvest in the first half of the season, the CEOC said during a meeting held to focus on the country's water situation.
A total of 19,000 hectares of rice paddy, which is the most important food crop in Taiwan and typically harvested twice a year, will be affected by the action on the Jianan Plain, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said.
Tsai Sheng-fu (蔡昇甫), director of the COA's Agency of Irrigation, said a lack of typhoons, coupled with minimal rainfall from January to October this year, has been a first for Taiwan in recent years.
The COA is also mulling whether areas in Taichung, Hsinchu, Miaoli, and Taoyuan will face a similar suspension of irrigation for the first rice harvest, with the final decision expected to be made in December.
According to the Tainan Water Resources Bureau, Chiayi's Zengwen Reservoir and Tainan's Wushantou Reservoir are currently only 30 percent full and cannot supply the 203 million cubic meters of water required to irrigate the areas.
The fact that the weather bureau has forecasted that there will be little rain from February to April next year means that the water situation will not improve anytime soon, the CEOC said.
Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) said compensation and other relief measures will be provided to farmers affected by the irrigation suspension.
Also Wednesday, COA Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) assured the public that Taiwan will not see a shortage in the domestic rice supply, as the crop is still being harvested throughout the country in the second half of the season.
Taiwan currently has a stockpile of 800,000 metric tons of rice for domestic consumption, Chen said, noting that the country's monthly rice consumption averages about 100,000 metric tons.
Taiwan's pomelo harvest affected by typhoons and climate change
Aug. 14, 2024 17:41