A second important set of policies and programs concerning agricultural and rural development that were adopted and carried out in some ESA economies and that have had an important bearing on the agricultural and rural development in those economies relate to agricultural and rural infrastructural investment, sometimes known as farmland consolidation (FC) programs. Note, however, that even though known as FC programs, the scope of these programs usually went much beyond purely consolidating farmland only, but included the building of rural roads, agricultural technology extensions, and support to marketing and sales and agri-businesses. We highlight the FC programs in Taiwan (China) for close study, although similar sets of policies and programs were adopted and carried out still earlier in Japan, and almost contemporaneously in China under a rather different set of institutions at the time (Liu et al., 1998).
FC in Taiwan involved consolidating those farm plots of irregular shape and size, with a poor farm road system, and poor irrigation and drainage systems. These conditions were recognized not to be conducive to carrying out controlled and timely irrigation and drainage, for farmers and machines to access plots, and for them to perform various operations in the plots. As such, FC in Taiwan involved rearranging existing plots and redesigning them into new ones of a suitable size and shape, with adequate roads and irrigation and drainage systems so that the
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plots can be directly irrigated and drained, and is linked to main farm roads. The main farm roads would be of an adequate width and condition for various farm machineries (tractors, harvesters, vehicles) as well as humans to pass so as to facilitate anticipated mechanization.
Part of the aim of FC was to reduce land fragmentation, that is, the scattering of the same farmer's land into a number of non-contiguous plots at more than one place. Since most of the land to be consolidated was paddy fields, FC also meant re-leveling the plots to suit paddy cultivation, according to the new boundaries, roads, and irrigation and drainage systems.
Figure 4.3.1 provides the standard layout of post-consolidation farm plots vis-à-vis roads and irrigation and drainage ditches, and Figure 4.3.2 gives an areal view comparison of the land at one location in Taiwan before and after consolidation.
All FC programs in Taiwan were fully government-initiated and -organized, sometimes with heavy government (and international) funding. The idea of organizing and carrying out large-scale FC programs in Taiwan dates back to the early 1950s. Japan's FC experience appears to have had an important influence on Taiwan's official thinking at the time. Two government officials were dispatched to Japan on a fact-finding mission in 1953. They later became main proponents of FC in Taiwan.26
The most important of Taiwan's FC programs was the first Ten-Year Program (1962-71), at the completion of which a cultivated land area of 249,000 hectares, accounting for 28% of the total cultivated land in Taiwan at the time, was consolidated. This is by any standard a colossal
26 When the present author visited Taiwan's Agricultural Commission in 1993, he received a complete set of a Chinese translation of the Japanese laws and regulations on land use and FC, an indication of the heavy Japanese influence on Taiwan's FC programs.
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achievement. Also noteworthy is the fact the costs for this program were principally borne by farmers themselves. Only two thirds of the estimated administration and professional assistance costs were covered by the government. In subsequent programs, a greater portion of the costs was to be borne by the government.
Figure 4.3.1 Farmland Consolidation in Taiwan: Standard Specification
5-7meter
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According to Hsieh (1993), the Program had an enormous impact on the conditions of farmland and on production. In the period 1962-67, the total number of farm plots in the consolidated area fell from 1,260,200 before FC to 465,050 after FC, a reduction of nearly two thirds. The proportion of directly irrigated and drained plots (i.e. a plot that is directly linked to an irrigation and drainage ditch without having to pass another plot) increased, respectively, from 21% and 19% before FC to 97% and 98% after FC. The yield of the first rice crop increased by 30% after FC compared with before FC. On the other hand, labor input per unit of land fell by 20%, and other production costs decreased by 15%. There were assessments of other wider social and economic impacts of the Program but I shall not dwell on them here.
After the first Ten-Year Program, 1973 saw the launching of the second Four-Year Program, followed by other but minor programs in the ensuing years (see Table 4.3.2 for a list of the successive programs up to 1995). In comparison, while the first Ten-Year Program had emphasized the goal of promoting agricultural growth by improving irrigation and drainage conditions, and by facilitating farm operations and management, the emphasis of the subsequent programs shifted to creating the right infrastructural conditions for a more mechanized agriculture so as to ensure continued agricultural growth with reduced labor inputs and increased part time farming. This coincided with a time when the economic structure of Taiwan was undergoing a fundamental change. 1973 saw industry overtaking agriculture in the share of employment, having already overtaken agriculture in the share of GDP in 1962. (Industry became the second largest sector in both output and employment in
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1973, after the service sector. Rapid industrial development was expected to further draw labor away from agriculture (but not necessarily from rural areas, if part of the industrial development was to take the form of the development of rural industries, which did happen in Taiwan). The policy challenge then was how to ensure continued growth of agriculture with falling labor inputs. The solution of the Taiwanese government was to facilitate and encourage agricultural mechanization with part-time farming under a system of small land holding.
Table 4.3.2 Taiwan's Farmland Consolidation Projects (Up to 1995)
Year Name of Project No. of
1962-71 First 10-Year FC Project 443 300,000 249,176 83.06
2nd Phase
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Because of the increased costs and engineering difficulties, between 1973 and 1992 only a total of 116,267 hectares of land was consolidated. Adding this to that consolidated during the first Ten-Year Program, at the end of 1992 a total of 365,443 hectares of land underwent FC, which accounts for over 40 percent of Taiwan's total cultivated land at the time.