Category Archives: Cooperatives

  Hayato Niki, Chikuma Kume As agricultural co-operatives nationwide encourage their member farms to expand their acreage of rice for feed, farms in some regions are doubling the production compared with the previous year. However, in order to meet the JA group’s goal of producing 600,000 tons of rice for feed in a year, member farms need to increase their yield by 3.3 times from a year before. It is indispensable for the farms to conduct further acreage shift from table rice to rice for feed, so as to better balance supply and demand in the harvest season. Producing rice for feed “is definitely more profitable than (cultivating) table rice,” … Continue reading →

  The Norinchukin Bank announced Wednesday, May 27, that it has concluded a strategic alliance with Netherland-based Rabobank in the field of food and agriculture-related financial business. By stepping up their long-standing relationship as agricultural co-operative financial organizations, Norinchukin hopes to gain knowhow from Utrecht-based Rabobank on agricultural management expertise and exports in Netherlands, a leading exporter of farm products known for its highly productive agriculture industry. Norinchukin says the strategic alliance, the first to be signed with a foreign financial institution, will help meet the government’s goal of making the nation’s farm sector the growth industry and increasing farmers’ income. “We will deepen understanding on Netherland’s agriculture and Rabobank’s … Continue reading →

  Agriculture minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told the Lower House agriculture committee Thursday, May 21, that the government’s farm co-ops reform will make the co-ops correspond more to the co-operative principles including autonomy and democracy. He brushed aside the International Co-operative Alliance’s claims made last year that the reform infringes on the principles. However, opposition parties criticized the government’s way of interpreting the reform to their own advantage. In October, the ICA, a nonprofit organization comprising 300 co-operative associations in 100 countries, issued a statement strongly condemning the Japanese government’s move to dismantle the Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives (JA-Zenchu). The statement said the contemplated legislative changes “obviously violate” some of … Continue reading →

  As the Lower House agriculture committee began deliberating a bill submitted by the government to revise the Agricultural Co-operative Society Law on Thursday, May 21, farm minister Yoshimasa Hayashi expressed reluctance to stating in the new law that agricultural co-ops are the main entity in local economies. His remark is likely to draw controversy, as it contradicts with the government’s previous stance which recognized the significance of farm co-ops in regional economy. The government said in its basic view on agricultural co-ops released in 2010 that the co-ops play an influential role in reinvigorating local economies and should be positioned as the major player in the regions. The view, shared by … Continue reading →