Fang-I Wen

This study evaluates the economic benefits of meteorological information services (MISs) provided by the Central Weather Administration (CWA) in Taiwan, specifically for Taiwan’s capture fishery industry. Using the contingent valuation method (CVM) and conducting in-person interviews, we collected questionnaires from capture fishery practitioners nationwide to gather their subjective evaluations of the meteorological information services provided by the CWA. Based on these evaluations, we further investigated the respondents’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the CWA’s meteorological information services. An empirical analysis of the bid function was conducted to identify the key factors influencing the respondents’ bidding behavior. The empirical findings indicate that the primary factors affecting bids include subjective perceptions (such as forecast accuracy ratings and the ratings of the impacts on fishing production), working location, fishing vessel tonnage, and fishing methods. The median WTP for Taiwanese capture fishery practitioners is Taiwan dollar (TWD) 2111.12 per person per year. Based on the number of capture fishery practitioners in Taiwan in 2019, the total annual economic value of applying MIS in coastal and offshore fisheries is estimated to be between TWD 376 million and TWD 496 million per year.

This review briefly summarizes the situation regarding food security in East and Southeast Asia. In accordance with the World Food Summit definition and 2009 Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security, the four pillars of food security—food availability, access to food, the stability of food supplies, and food utilization—are closely scrutinized along with the characteristics of food security at the sub-regional level. Historical trends for the agricultural economy and the food trade, such as food imports and exports, production and consumption, and the food price index in the sub-region, are presented and statistically analysed. Additionally, because agricultural industry in this region is vulnerable to climate change, issues about how climate change affects food security in food production systems, agricultural livelihoods, nutrition, and food policy making, which can be linked to the four pillars in different ways, are also discussed.

The main purpose of this research was to evaluate and analyze the economic value of the meteorological information services (MIS) provided by the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) when applied to aquaculture in Taiwan. In this research, a contingent valuation method (CVM) was used to inquire about the subjective rating given to the CWB’s meteorological information services based on the responses to a national level questionnaire distributed among aquaculture farmers. The subjective rating revealed how the aquaculture farmers rated the accuracy of the MIS provided by the CWB and how they recognized the impact of the MIS on their aquaculture output. On this basis, this research determined the economic value brought about by the application of the meteorological information services. In order to understand the main factors affecting the respondents’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the MIS, this research also conducted an empirical estimation of the bid function. The results indicated that the main factors affecting the WTP were found to include the respondents’ subjective rating of the meteorological information services (including the accuracy rating and the effect rating), traditional social and economic background variables such as income and education level, as well as fish species. In addition, through testing the estimation of the bid function, it was also found that the survey sample used in this research had a significant starting point bias effect, which needed to be corrected using econometric methods. According to the empirical results, the median willingness-to-pay (WTP) of aquaculture farmers in Taiwan was 3544 New Taiwan Dollars (NTD)/person/year and the total economic value at the national level ranged from 157 million to 209 million NTD per year. Since the MIS service users have often lacked sufficient knowledge and ability to interpret the weather forecasts, how to strengthen the capabilities of service users in using MIS through the promotion of training programs and improve the value of the MIS may be an important policy insight.

A better understanding of farmers’ investment strategies associated with climate and weather is crucial to protecting farming and other climate-exposed sectors from extreme hydrometeorological events. Accordingly, this study employed a field experiment to investigate the investment decisions under risk and uncertainty by 213 farmers from four regions of Taiwan. Each was asked 30 questions that paired “no investment,” “investment with crop insurance,” “investment with subsidized crop insurance,” and “investment” as possible responses. By providing imperfect information and various probabilities of certain states occurring, the experimental scenarios mimicked various types of weather-forecasting services. As well as their socioeconomic characteristics, the background information we collected about the participants included their experiences of natural disasters and what actions they take to protect their crops from weather damage. The sampled farmers became more conservative in their decision-making as the weather forecasts they received became more precise, except when increases in risk were associated with high returns. The provision of insurance subsidies also had a conservatizing effect. However, considerable variation in investment preferences was observed according to the farmers’ crop types. For those seeking to create comprehensive policies aimed at helping the agricultural sector deal with the costs of damage from extreme events, this study has important implications. This approach could be extended to research on the perceptions of decision-makers in other climate-exposed sectors such as the construction industry.