Council of Agriculture Chairman Chen Wu-hsiung (right), flanked by rice farmers from pollution-affected areas in southern Taiwan, tells reporters at a press conference held at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday the rice grown in areas in Tainan County, where traces of chromium and arsenic were found in rice paddies near industrial waste dumps earlier this month, is safe to eat. CNA

TAIPEI: The Council of Agriculture (COA) promised yesterday to purchase rice at guaranteed prices from Tainan County farmers whose paddies were found to be contaminated with heavy metals and who are therefore having difficulty selling their crops.

COA Chairman Chen Wu-hsiung said he will instruct the Agriculture and Food Agency to study the details of purchasing rice from those farmers, though he suggested that rice from paddies in Houbi Township, where excessive amounts of chromium were found, could not have been contaminated and was good of quality.

Chen told the press that there is no such thing as chromium or arsenic contaminated rice. Though such heavy metals in the soil might affect the growth of rice plants, the grains are usually free from contamination, according to the agriculture official.

However, according to many official records in countries including rice-crazy Japan, the East Asian carbohydrate staple does absorb hazardous substances such as heavy metals.

Case in point: the widely-reported and confirmed cases in Japan of "itai-itai byo" ("ouch-ouch" disease) caused by mining-released cadmium (a heavy metal) contamination and poisoning of rice and fish from the 1950s to the early 1970s.

Chen's comments may not alleviate consumer fears of eating contaminated rice, which means there will probably be no market for the second harvest of rice from Houbi Township. The COA is therefore stepping up efforts to help affected rice farmers by purchasing the crops from them at guaranteed prices.

It hopes that the government's purchase, as a gesture of quality guarantee since the rice will be put on the market, will help build confidence among consumers.

A COA spokesman said that local agricultural authorities are providing assistance to farmers by checking the quality of their rice harvest and providing storage space for rice stocks.

The COA also announced that when the second harvest comes in, the government plans to purchase from each hectare of rice paddy 1,440 kilograms of rice at NT$23 per kilogram, 800 kilograms at NT$20 per kilogram, and 2,360 kilograms at NT$18.6 per kilogram.

The second harvest is expected to yield an average 4,500 kilograms of rice.

In the wake of media reports about serious soil pollution in Houbi Township, the Environmental Protection Administration announced on Monday that the agency would destroy 1,280 kilograms of chromium-contaminated rice from the area.

Tsai Hung-teh, executive secretary of the EPA's Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Fund, said tests by the Tainan County government indicated that soil samples from rice paddies adjacent to a slag recycling plant were found to contain excessive amounts of chromium.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 11/19/2009 page2)