Horticulture is a labor, capital and technology intensive industry. Horticulture industry in Taiwan is now facing problems including lack of labor, aging of labor power, and pressure from free trade and globalization. Thus, the industry shall promptly adopt mechanization and automation to decrease production cost, raise productivity, enhance quality, and increase added-value, in order to strengthen the product competitiveness. Mechanization and automation requires professionals taught and trained by scholastic institutions. Taiwan has 24 classes in 16 vocational schools offering major in Horticulture, and 21 classes in 15 schools offering major in Farm Management; however, the scattered budget and manpower are unable to provide perfect practical training facilities and equipment.
To minimize duplication and scattering of educational resources, scholars suggest establishing a center of agriculture and horticulture similar to the one in Holland. Therefore, with sponsorship from Ministry of Education and Council of Agriculture, Center of Horticulture in National Chiayi University was officially established in July 1993. This practical training center centralizes manpower, funding, and all resources to provide the best facility and most comprehensive training courses to students of Horticulture major, agronomic and horticultural businesspersons, and teachers of related fields for the purpose of cultivating professionals for mechanization and automation in horticulture.
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