News--Welcome to National Chiayi University

　　Originally founded as Kagi Agricultural and Forestry School, National Chiayi University has been established for a century. On June 29 at 13:00, NCYU organized “The Comparison of East Asia Occupational Injury Insurance Policy Seminar (NCYU Session)” jointly with the College of Law, National Chengchi University (NCCU) and Taiwan Occupational Safety and Health Link. The seminar took place at the audiovisual room on the 4th floor of the Engineering Building (Department of Biomechatronic Engineering), NCYU.

　　The Farmers’ Health Insurance Program has been piloted in Taiwan for half a year, and experiences and practices of all kinds have been taken into consideration for future improvements. Japan and Korea, both neighboring countries known for small-scale farming operations, have been implementing the farmers’ health insurance program, and facilitating prevention and research on agricultural accidents. According to statistics by the Council of Agriculture (COA), since the Farmers’ Health Insurance Program has been piloted on Nov. 1st, 2018 till June 11th, 2019, the program has been joined by around 172 thousand farmers, with an insurance coverage rate of 15.44%. For the welfare of the farmers, they are planning to expand the program to include the insured in Category 3 under the National Health Insurance who are engaged in agricultural work; in other words, these people may join the Farmers’ Health Insurance Program as an insured person. In the future, they will strive to simplify the payment application process, accelerate the review process for the insurance payment, and raise farmers’ awareness of occupational safety step by step. The ultimate goal is to provide a better insurance program for the farmers.

　　The seminar (NCYU Session) was proud to invite COA Chairperson Chen Chi-Chung for an opening speech, and the following keynote speakers: Koji Ohura, Chief Researcher at the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine; Shinji Asanuma, Visiting Researcher at Japan Institute of Rural Medicine; Lee Kyung Sook, Chief of the Agricultural Safety Health Section, Rural Development Administration, Korea; Wang Dong Liang, Executive Secretary of the Farmers’ Health Insurance Project Office, COA; and De-Huei Lin, Director of the Department of Labor Affairs. Together they shared their experiences and exchanged ideas on facilitating prevention of agricultural accidents and farmers’ occupational safety.

According to the latest statistics by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan, up to 364 farmers died on average from agricultural work-related injuries annually from 2007 to 2016. Take the year 2016 for example: a total of 312 farmers died from work-related injuries. Among the death cases, as high as 69.6% had something to do with improper operation of farming machinery, with tractor accidents as the main cause. Accidents related to the farming facilities accounted for the second critical factor for the fatal work-related injuries. The other factors included burns, fall from height, road accidents, as well as “hyperthermia,” or “heat stroke,” which has been occurring with higher frequency in recent years. In 2016 alone, there were 19 Japanese farmers who died from heat stroke.

　　NCYU President Chyung Ay indicated that the university, one of the event organizers, is the oldest agricultural educational institutions in the country. While celebrating its centennial anniversary, NCYU held “The Comparison of East Asia Occupational Injury Insurance Policy Seminar” jointly with NCCU College of Law and Taiwan Occupational Safety and Health Link, making the event all the more meaningful.

　　President Ay added that NCYU is not only a cradle of agricultural expertise at home, but also demonstrates remarkable research results in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries. With the seminar, they were able to collaborate interdisciplinarily with experts and scholars in the fields of law and public health to promote farmers’ occupational safety and prevention of agricultural accidents. They hoped to create a safe working environment for farmers, raise farmers’ awareness of occupational safety, and bring NCYU to the next level in terms of facilitating intelligent agriculture for the next generation nationwide.