Changhua County Government and Township Farmers Associations, including County Mayor Wang HuiMei and Chang JianFong, director general of Changhua County Farmers Association, go for an agro-photovoltaics (APV) field trip in Tokyo, Japan. After they arrived in Japan today (4th), they drove to Chiba Prefecture immediately to visit the farms using regenerative organic agriculture. Under the introductions from Tomomitsu Miyashita and Shigeo Tsubaki, funders of Citizen Energy Chiba Co., Ltd, they learned about the concept and practice of APV. In Taiwan, rooftop photovoltaic systems and ground-mounted photovoltaic systems are generally the major promotion solutions, while a compromise solution of APV is adopted in Japan. APV combines farming and solar photovoltaic electricity production. According to Japan’s experience, the APV system on 20 hectares creates annual income of nearly NT$6 million. It could be a win-win, not only allowing the farmland to be used for agriculture, but also enabling the farmers increasing income by producing electricity. County Mayor Wang gave honorarium gifts to Japanese representatives and invited them to Changhua to inspect and learn from each other’s work. “Solar energy is clean green electricity and is currently an energy trend in various countries. As a result, how to fit it with the environment is relatively important.” County Mayor Wang said, “In Taiwan, most livestock and fishery industries install solar panels on the roofs of buildings, while the agricultural industries install the ground mounted ones on the farmland, which thus becomes unavailable for farming. In contrast, Japan has elevated the panels above the farmland, enabling the original land to be continuously used to grow crops, such as wheat, barley and soybeans. This method benefits both farming and electricity producing. The income ratio of cultivating crops and producing electricity is 1:9, which proves APV’s capable of greatly increasing farmers' income. It is worth learning from to allow farmers to create better and more profits.” “The field trip in Japan with Changhua County Government shows me that Japan has made great advancements in APV. If its advanced ideas have been applied to the farmland in the coastal areas of Changhua, I believe this smart technology system will bring extra income to our farmers,” said Chang JianFong, director general of Changhua County Farmers Association. According to Japanese representative’s presentation, the cost of APV system, including the cost of purchasing land, could be recovered in about 8 to 10 years, but the income it brings is about 9 times that of cultivating crops on the same farmland. The field visited today is a farmland that is not easy to cultivate, where enables 60 HP agricultural machinery to operate and make a U-turn. So far, it is planted with crops such as soybeans, barley, and wheat. The relevant experience is very worthy of reference for the agricultural development of Changhua County.