Taking Care of Sugarcane Farmers
TSC selects suitable farmers to sign contract as partner sugarcane farmers based on the factors such as whether the transportation distance between the farmland and the sugar factory is reasonable, and whether it is convenient for harvesting and transportation. The partner sugarcane farmers send the standard contract to the sugar factory after filling it out. The content in the contract includes the sugarcane farmer’s basic personal information, the location of the sugarcane farmers’ land, the lot number, plantation area, date of planting, and sugarcane varieties. 55% of the sugar produced by the partner sugarcane farmers belongs to “sugarcane farmer’s share of sugar”, and TSC will purchase it at a guaranteed price NTD 24,878/tonne. There is no labor contract or employment relationship between the partner sugarcane farmers and TSC, and the land is also owned by the sugarcane farmers.
In addition to shouldering the task of taking care of sugarcane farmers by purchasing sugarcane at guaranteed price and stabilizing the supply and demand of the domestic sugar market, TSC subsidizes for the transportation charges of the raw material of sugarcanes, the cane field fire insurance fees, the purchase of bait. In addition, TSC also provides low interest-rate loans with a monthly interest rate of 0.25% (simple interest method) to assist sugarcane farmers in financing for funds needed in the production process.
Agricultural Land Leases and Value-added Service
To cooperate with the government’s agricultural policy to stabilize the balance of the production and sales of domestic agricultural products, TSC handles the affairs concerning the lease of land for the cultivation of regulatory crops in accordance with the “Coordination between Council of Agriculture of Executive Yuan and Ministry of Economic Affairs for the Lease of TSC-owned Land”. The area of farmland leased in cooperation with the policy to balance production and sales was 4,973 hectares.
TSC transforms the land tenants into partners, providing tenants with more services such as information of production technology, marketing and channel characteristics. Increase interactions with young farmers for mutual understanding and cooperation opportunities. TSC will also expand the service targets from the tenants of the land of TSC to the entire Hualien area in eastern Taiwan to expand its influence on agriculture. It is hoped that through the development of various young farmers’ businesses, the regional agriculture can be developed, which can further encourage young people to return to their hometowns to market the agricultural products produced by local young farmers.
The Opening of the Academy of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
The Academy of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry designed standardized and advanced animal husbandry training courses and cultivated students with common ideals for the future with heuristic teaching to collectively gather pig farming and related industries to work for the sustainable development of the industrial environment that suits Taiwan’s pig farming industry most; In addition, considering the organic agriculture transformation of the Company, we can no longer provide internship fields for young farmers, and the agricultural economics courses were discontinued in 2022.
Since the opening of the courses in 2018, a total of 521 trainees have been trained as of 2022 (307 young farmers and 214 TSC employees). :There were 281 trainees in the animal husbandry courses, among them, 185 were young farmers, and 174 young farmers completed the training program successfully. For agricultural economics courses, a total of 240 people were trained, including 122 young farmers taking the courses. After the completion of the overall renovation of the pig farms a brand new field is expected to be provided for trainees for hand-on courses. We also expect to cooperate with Council of Agriculture to cultivate experts in the industry and establish a team of consultants. With the diversified courses and training sessions, the learning content will further be enriched.