Taiwan's Ag Mosaic

Taiwan, an island with a population of about 23 million people, produces around $18 billion in agricultural goods annually. The average farm size in Taiwan is less than 1 hectare, significantly smaller than in the United Kingdom or the United States. Much of the island is mountainous, leaving only about one-quarter of the land arable, mostly located in the Chianan Plain.

The small plot size is evident in satellite images of farmland in Yunlin County, one of Taiwan's most productive agricultural areas. The county is known for producing a wide range of crops, including rice, sweet potatoes, and sugarcane. Farmers in the area often use shade nets to protect crops from the elements.

Historically, sugarcane was widely grown in the county, and the large plot sizes in the farmland north of Baozhong persist as a legacy of this period. Today, the Taiwan Sugar Corporation still raises sugarcane in the area and operates a railway to transport harvested cane to nearby Huwei.