dailyloe.com – NASA’s Landsat 9 satellite captured an agricultural mosaic in Yunlin County, southwestern Taiwan, on March 18, 2026. The image was taken by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) instrument aboard the satellite. It shows farms raising an array of crops across the region. The image was published by NASA Earth Observatory on April 24, 2026.
About 23 million people live in Taiwan, a Pacific island about the size of Maryland. Despite its size, the island produces a tremendous amount of agricultural goods per year. That amount is about $18 billion, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Agriculture.
The average size of a farm in Taiwan is less than 1 hectare. This is much smaller than in the United Kingdom, where farms average 87 hectares. In the United States, the average farm size is 187 hectares. Since much of the island is mountainous, only about one-quarter of Taiwan’s land is arable.
This arable land is mostly located on the southwestern side of the island in the Chianan Plain. That amounts to 0.03 hectares of farmland per Taiwanese citizen. This is about half as much arable farmland as there is per person in the United Kingdom. It is one-tenth as much as in the United States.
The small plot size is apparent in this satellite image of farmland in Yunlin County. Yunlin County is one of the island’s most productive agricultural areas. The modest scale is partly a result of past policies that limited the size of farms. It is also a byproduct of cultural traditions that often lead to the division of farms into smaller parcels as property is passed from one generation to the next.
Located along the floodplains of the Zhoushui and Beigang rivers, Yunlin County is mostly flat. It has fertile soils and easy access to irrigation water. The county is one of Taiwan’s main agricultural hubs. It is known for producing a wide range of crops, including rice, sweet potatoes, peanuts, corn, sugarcane, garlic, scallions, coffee, fruit, and leafy greens.
Farms in the county also raise millions of pigs. This is the most of any county in Taiwan. Areas with large fields were generally once part of sugar plantations. Most crops in Yunlin County are grown in small rectangular plots defined by roadways and networks of irrigation canals.
The exception is sugarcane, which was grown widely in the county in the past. The image highlights the diversity of agriculture across the farmland. The region produces an array of crops on small farms. This agricultural mosaic is a key feature of Yunlin County’s landscape.
