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Abstract
This study explores the effect of labor shortage on the crop selection of carambo-la(start fruit) farmers. Carambola farmers were chosen as subjects because their workloads are more than other fruits farmers. Through ethnographic interviewing in Nanxi district, Tainan City, and analysis of agricultural statistics, it was found that various factors affect-ing farmers’ cropping choice, the aging agricultural labor is more credible and explicable. Carambola was originally a popular fruit in Taiwan until being stigmatized by a medical news in 2001 declining costumers’ willingness of consuming carambolas. The news also caused a decrease of production area and crop yield of carambola in Taiwan. However, Nanxi fruit farmers could still earn profit by selling carambola to export distributor. More-over, China’s political procurement to Taiwan after 2005 also increased the exportation in the short term. The production decline of Nanxi carambola happened in 2010. This study found that in between 2001 and 2010 when the export of Carambola was still profitable, the phe-nomenon of conversion has already occurred, and the reasons behind it are related to the shortage of rural labor. The price of carambola has remained stable for a long time. How-ever, the labor-intensive production process of carambola cannot beat other fruits in price. In recent years, more and more Nanxi carambola farmers are reluctant to maintain orchard garden and start to give up production due to physical decline and lack of seasonal agri-cultural workers. They have abandoned the carambola and switched to other crops. Ob-viously, "aging labor" is the biggest challenge of Taiwan's agricultural development. The case of Nanxi carambola farmers shows that older fruit farmers tend to plant those fruit trees which need less labor power. In other words, the main consideration when the fruit farmers change crops is the workloads in production process.
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