The arable land area in Kaohsiung is 46,703 hectares (accounting for 16% of total land area). The total outcome value for agriculture and animal husbandry combined is about $28.98106 billion, while the number of peasant households reached 71,343 with the agricultural population of 215,647 people. The main agricultural products are vegetables, fruits, and rice. The annual production of tropical fruits, especially guava, jujube and litchi (Yu he bao), is at the No. 1 spot in Taiwan, and the production of other fruits like pineapple, papaya, longan, banana, wax apple and Jinhuang mango is also abundant, which make Kaohsiung the capital of fruit. The animal husbandry in Kaohsiung has also developed, mainly including pigs, dairy cattle, sheep, deer, chicken, duck and goose, and the annual outcome value exceeds $10.82825 billion.
The priority principle of Kaohsiung’s agricultural policy is forming a “safe and relieved agriculture.” Besides promoting environment-friendly farming, we also strive for strengthen the certification for agricultural products (such as GAP, traceability, organic certification), which allows the information of agricultural products to be transparent from “farms” to “tables.”
In order to promote local ingredients and respond to green concept and environment protection, Kaohsiung City, based on the concept of “from the place of production to restaurant,” is the first city in Taiwan to promote “Kaohsiung environment-friendly restaurants” with the principles of healthy agriculture, safe ingredients, low-carbon food and beverage, and green consumption. There are 45 restaurants passed the evaluation and joined the ranks, who provide safe and tasty meals to consumers and make contribution to the land.
Kaohsiung is the first city to combine 6 levels of industries with renaissance agricultural communities and plan tours with community features. We introduced an agricultural village experience activity of “one-day farmer experience in Kaohsiung” along with professional local tour guides to allow tourists to have in-depth knowledge about the community, enjoy the nature, experience fruit picking and DIY, and enjoy the meal made of local ingredients.
Kaohsiung has been the benchmark of animal-friendly city. In recent years, we have been improving facilities for controlling and detaining stray animals in order to increase the animal benefits and adoption ratio. The actual actions taken include the activation of the largest “Kaohsiung City Yanchao Animal Protection Park” in this year, assistance in accompanying and taking care of animals, cooperating with pet stores to introduce charity adoption window, and the “project of firehouse dog A-yong” that trains the second specialty of dogs. Based on the concept of respecting lives and animal-friendly, we hold more than 100 sessions of campus tour promotion and promote the sustainable campus-friendly dogs. In order to strengthen the concept of loving animals, we passed the “Kaohsiung City Animal Protection Autonomous Statutes” and established organization of volunteer animal protectors. Kaohsiung City also starts with origin management and has increased funding for animal sterilization.