Soybean production and research in Taiwan

Soybean production and research in Taiwan

Tsukuba Tropical Agriculture Research Center Japan

1984

p.45-66

SB205.S7I51

Soybean is a crop of economic value in Taiwan. There are three crops each year, of these crops, the fall crop is planted mainly in the Kaohsiung-Pingtung area. Generally two cultural practices, the conventional method and stubble planting, are used in soybean production. Stubble planting is predominantly for the fall crop. In 1982, the acreage and value of soybean were only 0.85% and 0.24% of the total national crop land and value, respectively, but contrast to the pre-war years, soybean production has significantly increased. This increase resulted from the extensive effort made by research institutions in the improvement of variety, physiology, cultural practices, nutrition, and pest management. However, further increase in production is expected to be difficult due to the constraints in (1) competition from the low-priced, imported soybean and from other crops; (2) high labor cost; and (3) unfavorable weather conditions. A large part of the demand for oil and feedstuffs still relies on imports every year, despite great efforts made by the authorities to increase soybean production in order to reduce imports. This goal, however, has never been fulfilled because of the government policy for rice self-sufficiency. Due to the excessive supply of rice in recent years, more farmland is being allocated to the planting of soybean and other feed grain crops. Thus soybean production is expected to increase hereafter. [AS]

International symposium on soybean in the tropics and subtropics; Proceedings of

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