Farmers face labor shortage problem in harvest time / 災後復耕將收成 全台又面臨大缺工　　　　　　　　　　

Due to the three consecutive typhoons, much of the crop in Taiwan was damaged and destroyed, which led to a huge amount of agricultural losses. Now in a month or so, will finally be harvest time again, and the farmers are now facing yet another problem, the labor shortage. Shouting and clapping, the farmer was trying to scare Chinese bulbuls away. His cucumber field is about to harvest within two days, and he was afraid of those birds eating up his cucumbers. This field used to have greenhouses, but they were destroyed by typhoons. ==LIN YUN-KUNG, farmer in Meinong== I thought another typhoon might come, so I was being cautious. The material for my 2,900 square-meter land would cost me NT$60,000, and the labor would cost me another NT$10,000. Three typhoons caused serious damages over farmlands in Taiwan. After a month of re-cultivation, harvesting season is coming. However, shortage of labors is another new problem for harvesting cherry tomatoes in the coming December. ==LIN YUN-KUNG, Farmer in Meinong== Not easy to find and hire. I had four to five labors came, they didn't even know how to fertilize. After they know how, they were hired immediately by other people. ==FU CHIH-KANG, Farmer in Meinong == Last year, there was only me and my dad harvested tomatoes. The total sales revenue was less than half of what it should be. Because we were short of labors so we were not able to complete our harvest. When all the sudden it rained, everything was gone. Farmers had chosen passive alternatives such as narrowing down the cultivation area or leaving the fruit to the earth, but the problem of labor shortage has been serious to the aging agricultural society. Although there are some young people returning homes to help, but that is not enough to solve the problem. TRANSLATED BY：ANTHONY LIN 大聲嚇走白頭翁，就怕再過兩天要收成的胡瓜，壞了賣相，農民邊工作邊驅鳥，也因為這處胡瓜田原本有溫網室保護，卻被颱風吹壞，還來不及修復。 ==美濃農民 林永恭== 我想說可能還會有颱風 我不敢搭啊 我算三分地要六萬 還有那個工 要請人家搭上去一萬塊 接連三個颱風襲台，各地農損嚴重，雨過天晴，經過一個多月復耕，不少蔬果接連採收上市，但又碰上另一個棘手問題，人手不足，尤其是12月中旬是橙蜜番茄採收期，全需要仰賴人工。 ==美濃農民 林永恭== 不好找 找四、五個過來 他連施肥都不會 教會了 有人就把他搶走了 ==美濃農民 傅志剛== 去年番茄因為只有 我跟我爸兩個人採收 總銷售額不到一半 因為缺工嘛 來不及採收 天候異常 下雨什麼的都損失了 縮小耕作面積、或是放任作物熟成落果，是農民面對缺工的消極應對，只是，各種蔬果產期集中，缺工問題可說天天上演，雖然有不少第二代返鄉接手，卻緩不濟急，畢竟農村人口老化，缺工只會日益惡化，亟待解決。 記者 李淑蘭 孟昭權 高雄報導