Category Archives: Food & Agriculture

  Hirobumi Senbongi Japanese producers of frozen vegetables are seeking ways to increase their market share, as rising labor costs in China – the main supplier of frozen vegetables – and the weaker yen are leading to strengthen price competitiveness of domestic products. In order to help stabilize farmers’ incomes, officials of Japanese agricultural cooperatives which produce frozen vegetables say they are looking to increase production if their products, which they say are higher in quality than imported products, prove to be more competitive in the market. According to the Japan Frozen Food Association, consumption of frozen food in 2012 marked a record high of 2.7 million tons in terms … Continue reading →

  The Environment Ministry is working on reducing pesticides’ damages caused on wildlife living in rice fields, such as dragonflies and killifish, by adjusting pesticide application in terms of ingredients and application period. At the ministry’s National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, a research group headed by chief researcher Koichi Goka is conducting mesocosm experiments, a method of using enclosed pools of rice fields to create a semi-natural environment and evaluate the impacts of pesticides by realistically manipulating ecosystems unique to each region. The research group placed rows of blue, washtub-like pools which are one meter in diameter and 80 centimeters deep, and applied different types of … Continue reading →

  Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate in fiscal 2012 remained at 39 % on a calorific input basis for the third consecutive year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced Thursday, August 8. Although rice consumption dropped amid higher prices, the self-sufficiency rate maintained its level, as consumption of Japanese-grown wheat and soybean grew thanks to increased amount of harvested crop, the ministry reported. Meanwhile, the ministry said that the overall area under wheat and soybean cultivation has not increased. The government is seeking to achieve its goal of raising the food self-sufficiency rate – the proportion of domestically produced food in all food consumed in Japan – to 50% … Continue reading →

  People aged 39 or younger who began farming in 2012 amounted to 15,030, up 5.7% or 810 from the previous year to occupy 26.6% of the total beginning farmers, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. But the age group of 39 or younger was the only group which marked an increase, indicating the need to further encourage a variety of people to enter farming and continue the business. The number of beginning farmers from non-farming families also marked an increase, rising 40% or 910 from a year before to 3,010. On the other hand, the number of beginning farmers who succeed their families’ farms or are … Continue reading →

  One of the reasons why fertility of cows decline during the summer is because the summer heat stress negatively affects the secretion of prostaglandins in the oviducts, causing hormone imbalances, according to a research group of the Okayama University Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science. Professor Kiyoshi Okuda who heads the research group said the findings will be helpful in analyzing the causes of oviduct malfunction and searching ways to improve the conception rates. Peristaltic movements of oviducts, which are the forces leading to  transportation of early embryos to the uterus, are affected by secretion of two types of hormone-like substance prostaglandin – prostaglandin E2(PGE2) and prostaglandin F2α(PGF2α). … Continue reading →