| ABSTRCT | The term multifunctional agriculture or multifunctionality refers to the fact that agriculture can produce various non-commodity outputs in addition to food and fiber. Non-commodity outputs include landscape, rural economic viability, domestic food safety, cultural heritage and preservation of biodiversity. The term is often argued for protectionist reasons and justifies agricultural price and income support programs and trade restrictions which are not permitted by WTO.
Land is a key element of agriculture. Multifunctional agriculture is equated with multifunctional farmland use. Since the late 1990s, many intensively managed agricultural areas in EU, Norway, Switzerland, Japan etc. have shifted progressively from solely production oriented use to multiple functions use. However, the functions of agriculture in these countries are different. What functions of agriculture a country should have is generally influenced by its social, economic, cultural and political factors. Few studies investigate what functions of farmland should be and what land use types for performance of multifunctional agriculture have priority in Taiwan. This paper conducts the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to assess multifunctional performances of agriculture and farmland use types for Taiwan. We find that production and ecological function are most important in main criteria of farmland use, and that foods supply, foods safety and soil protection have priority in sub-criteria of farmland functions, and that organic farming is first alternatives in farmland use criteria.
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