Magistrates of Yunlin and Chiayi called for the establishment of a joint agricultural zone for both counties on Thursday, and demanded a budget of 30 billion NT dollars for the project.

They stressed that the government can't afford to underestimate ECFA's potential impact on domestic agriculture, and concrete steps must be taken to keep this industry competitive.

A proposal for the establishment of a joint agricultural zone in Yunlin and Chiayi was made on Thursday by the heads of both counties governments.

Magistrate of Yulin, Su Chih-fen, and her Chiayi counterpart, Chang Hua-kuan, demanded that the central government should allocate a special budget of 30 billion NT dollars to fund this project, which aims to promote agricultural upgrade and transformation on a national level.

Su emphasized that, even though Taiwan is not imminently threatened by the import of agricultural products from China after the signing of ECFA, the government has not done enough to protect farmers and keep the domestic agricultural industry competitive, which makes Su and Changs proposal even more timely and urgent.

In response, the Council of Agriculture said the new proposal will be implemented once its approved by the congress, but further discussions are needed over the issue of budget allocation.