台灣農業科技策略與農業競爭力

Agricultural S&T Strategies and Agricultural Competitiveness in Taiwan

台灣屬小農經濟體系，台灣過去的農業成長率約有三分之二是來自技術的改進，另外三分之一是因素的增加，可見技術改進對台灣農業發展的貢獻。台灣農業技術屬誘發性創新（Induced innovation），它解決台灣農業在規模經濟與產品生命週期短之限制。但是在全球貿易自由化的衝擊下，依靠土地與人力為主要生產要素的傳統農業正迅速喪失競爭力。面對激烈國際競爭與知識經濟時代來臨，政府大力實施各種獎勵措施，政府、學術單位及企業界紛紛投入技術研發行列，藉以提升農業競爭力。就長期而言，台灣農業科技研究經費有增加趨勢，但台灣農業中下游企業的研發與技轉能力仍嫌薄弱，農業科技研發與移轉機制仍有待強化。經實證分析結果，科技因素對農業競爭力之影響與貢獻尚不明確，因此制度性之創新與研究機關之研究方向與務實化，在此階段更顯重要且急迫。未來政府單位或其他法人機構研發之技術移轉應朝：一、強化新科技產品之設計、管理、產銷等方面技術。二、降低農業科技技術之複雜性，以提升技術移轉業者對移轉技術接受之態度。三、著重於接受技術移轉業者之獲利率與管理效能提高。此外，政府農業施政應以全球化布局規劃，加強對外具競爭力農業品之出口，創造國內技術市場之形成與規模，使農業附加價值以創新研發為動力。

Taiwan is a small island economy. For past few decades, two-thirds of agricultural growth was attributed to technological progress. Induced innovation was the mainstream of technological progress, which overcame the constraint of scale diseconomies and shortens product life cycles in Taiwan. However, traditional land and labor-intensive oriented agriculture has lost its competitiveness drastically in the course of globalization and trade liberalization. Facing the keen global competition and the era of knowledge economy, the government has implemented a series of measurements to encourage research institutes, universities, and private R&D institutes to devote to innovative activities to enhance agricultural competitiveness. In the long run, the government budget for agricultural research has shown a rising trend. However, the technological transfer ability and mechanism between private corporations and research institutes in Taiwan still need to be strengthened. Based on this study, the relation between S&T factors and enhancing agricultural competitiveness during the past two decades has not been proven yet. Therefore, institutional innovations for the agricultural sector, such as land enlargement programs, are needed, and the directions and topics of the R&D institute should be more market-oriented to meet the demands of farmers and corporations.