Witnessing the damages by Typhoons last September (2016) on agricultural greenhouses across the country, Council of Agriculture (COA) has decided to improve the agricultural sector’s ability to withstand natural disasters in the hope of stabilizing the overall produce supplies. The COA has thus embarked on a 5-year plan starting from this year (2017), which combines measures like technical consultation, greenhouse insurance, construction personnel training, agricultural loans, and participation of agricultural enterprises. This plan will encourage farmers to invest in greenhouse facilities, reaching 5000 hectares within this 5-year period. This will boost the overall development of domestic greenhouse industry and in turn enable agricultural producers to better cope with extreme climate fluctuations.
Module Courses Customized to Specific Needs
Agriculture and Food Agency (AFA) indicates that, to elevate the construction quality and staff industry’s personnel, the Agency has worked with Agricultural Research Institute and Work Development Agency, Ministry of Labor to formulate module courses on greenhouse and net house construction. The first batch of the 40-hour courses, which has been commissioned by Work Development Agency, was designed on both theoretical and applied grounds to target participants of different backgrounds. The subjects include greenhouse pipes and covering materials, structural mechanics, reading greenhouse diagrams, notices for construction, safety and hygiene guidelines, electromechanical integration, and cooling systems. Aside from training dedicated personnel for greenhouse construction, those farmers operating greenhouses are also educated on basic knowledge about maintenance and expedient repair.
The AFA points out that, with the first batch of on-the-job training, enrolled by 16 trainees from construction industry and related social enterprises, began on February 23 and concluded on April 13, 2017, the second batch attracts the participation of 22 and is planned to start in mid-June. To ensure the safety of future greenhouse constructions and achieve greater consistency in techniques and skills among greenhouse constructors, efforts are going to be devoted to encouraging those firms to take parts in this type of training events, which should elevate the overall facility quality.
The AFA stresses that, except enlarging the size of greenhouse cultivation through offering module courses in coordination with relevant administrators, a lot of emphasis are also put on relevant techniques for cultivating crops inside greenhouse, like those of applying pesticides and management. Furthermore, local governments will be playing an assisting role in hosting training courses for advancing agricultural techniques. As a major highlight of New Agriculture Policy, greenhouse agriculture has the potential to revitalize rural economy, bring about better agricultural safety, and upgrade the agriculture as a whole and move it toward the goal of becoming a green gold industry.