Pandemic stirs farming innovationBy Hsieh Chi-Ming 謝奇明Since its initial outbreak in 2019, COVID-19 has continued to cause health crises and negative GDP growth throughout the world. Due to the perishability of agricultural products, the loss of nutrition over time and the difficulty of standardizing packaging, the management of the supply chain of such products is more complicated than that of general industrial goods. During the COVID-19 pandemic, logistics delays, the reduction of retail channels and the short chain of agricultural products led to the rise of a stay-at-home economy in Taiwan. Even though the phenomenon of short chains of agricultural products exists in pandemics, some local smallholder farmers also developed their own coping strategies. The association has dispersed farmers’ sales channels from a single, large one to more expanded channels to stabilize the local agriculture during the pandemic.
