Category Archives: Others

The Japan Agricultural News Senior special writer, Masaru Yamada Many farming regions in Japan are working on increasing cultivation of rice for livestock feed in an effort to improve the supply-demand balance of rice. The total acreage reached 80,000 hectares last year. The production is highly likely to continue expanding in the future, backed by rich government subsidies and support from agricultural organizations. This has also helped gradually recover the prices of table rice. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries estimates that there is roughly 4.42 million tons of potential demand for feed rice. If some 10 million tons of corn imported from countries such as the United States … Continue reading →

<The Japan Agricultural News has asked Nobuhiro Suzuki, professor of the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, to contribute an article to evaluate a recent recommendation by an agricultural working group of the government’s Regulatory Reform Council. The group proposed abolishing the nation’s raw milk distribution system, in which regional dairy co-operatives designated by the government collect milk from local dairy farmers, then negotiate with and sell the produce to dairy companies.> It is extremely inefficient to collect and sell raw milk in small units, as it is highly perishable. Such an inefficient system would confuse dairy farmers, distributors, dairy product manufacturers and retailers, and it would … Continue reading →

Toshinobu Kitabayashi, head of Worldwide Agricultural Policy Information Center Between the beginning of this year and February, a series of fierce protests spread among livestock farmers of western France against a squeeze in margins by large supermarkets which made it difficult for them to even make up for production costs. The French government and the European Union have been busy trying to settle the issue, with President Francois Hollande promising to review the deregulatory measures implemented under the act on modernization of agriculture and fisheries enacted in 2010 by the administration of former President Nicholas Sarkozy, and the European Union presenting emergency support measures. However, I would like to discuss … Continue reading →

In early morning on April 16, Kumamoto region of Kumamoto prefecture on the Kyushu Island was severely struck by a powerful earthquake centering in the region, which registered an upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale. Tremors of the earthquake were more violent than those of an earthquake, registering an intensity of 7 on the scale, which hit the same area on the evening of April 14. The earthquake and a number of aftershocks caused widespread suffering in the Kumamoto region. Damages caused on agriculture by the earthquake have been reportedly increasing. The Japan Meteorological Agency announced that the earthquake striking the Kumamoto region before dawn on April 16 … Continue reading →