ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONAL REPORT Date : 2017-04-18 Views : 2850
institution name : JA-ZENCHU
Regional Report - Asia Pacific
Mr. Shigeshi Onishi, JA-Zenchu (Japan)
In Asia (especially in Monsoon Asia), there are many natural disasters such as floods, typhoons and earthquakes that cause serious damage to agriculture and rural communities.
It has been 6 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011. Last April, we experienced another major earthquake in Kumamoto, south Japan. In October, there was also a series of typhoons hit in Hokkaido, a major farm area in northern Japan. Besides those natural disasters, farmers and authorities have been tackling the outbreak of avian flu across northeast Asia since 2016.
In Japanese society, we are facing a decrease in population and super-aging. This is exactly the same in the agricultural sector; the number of farmers decreased to 1.7 million in 2015, a decrease of 15% in five years. The average age of full-time rice farmers is 67 years old. The area of farmland in production has been decreased while fallow (set-aside) field is expanding.
For sustainable development of agriculture, agricultural cooperatives in Japan are conducting the following activities as top priority:
➢ Increase direct marketing of farm products from primary cooperatives to retailers to maximize farmers’ income
➢ Become further involved in value chains and increase value-added products
➢ Strengthen joint-purchasing of farm inputs to minimize farming costs Agricultural reforms by
the Japanese government are also underway.
Eight new legislations are under Diet deliberation in the current Assembly. Many new laws aim to strengthen competitiveness of agricultural sector (restructuring fertilizer/chemical sector, development of new seeds/varieties, dairy policy reform, introducing comprehensive farm income insurance, etc).