TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Amid a shortage of farm hands, Taiwan will double the number of foreigners it allows to work in the agricultural sector from 6,000 to 12,000, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said Saturday (March 18).

During a meeting with young farmers in Hualien County, COA Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said the proposal had already received the approval of the Ministry of Labor (MOL), CNA reported. The foreign workers would be set to work across the country in the areas where they were needed the most, he said.

Chen also named automatization as a necessary way of combating the labor shortage. He mentioned the example of 30 hectares of tea fields in the Hualien County township of Ruisui needing full automatization from the spraying of pesticides to the picking of the leaves.