Chou Chang-hung said in a report at the July 2-5 biennial meeting of Academia Sinica members that Taiwan's agriculture sector, which is labor-intensive and composed of mainly small farmers, is declining rapidly.

Besides the impact of globalization, the report, co-authored by Chou and fellow academician Liao I-chiu, points out that conservative government policies that rely on subsidies and lack long-term planning or vision also hinder progress in the sector.

With its inability to transform into a more technology- and capital-intensive force, the sector is seeing a waning labor force and production values, leading to a growing rural-urban gap, according to the report.

He therefore proposed the creation of a research institute operated under partnerships among Academia Sinica and universities to develop the country's agriculture and biotechnology.

Chou also suggested that graduate school courses should be established to cultivate talent in research and management for the agriculture and biotech sectors.

Following Chou's report, academician Mai Chao-cheng called for improvement of the marketing and distribution of agricultural produce to avoid the current situation in which middlemen profit, to the detriment of the farmers.

Mai also said the government should enhance the legal framework for the protection of the intellectual property rights of agricultural technology in order to prevent Taiwanese businessmen from taking the results of research projects funded by Taiwan to China.