ABSTRACT
Taiwan was a colony of Japan from 1895 to 1945. Under Japanese administration many irrigation systems were built, the main objective being to increase Taiwan's capacity to produce rice for export to Japan. When the Japanese first occupied Taiwan, the local rice varieties were indicas, originally brought to the island by farmers who had migrated from the Chinese mainland. In the 1950s, the government of Taiwan supported a limited breeding program to improve the native rice varieties. Authorities who have written the story of Taiwan's strategy for rice production divide it into two periods: 1949-1969, and the years since 1969. Certain common elements, however, are applicable to any rice production program in any country that is plagued by low yields and a rice deficit. Countries with little industrialization and scarce foreign exchange resources will have difficulty in adopting Taiwan's plan in its entirety.
