Young farmers in urban areas have come up with goals of conveying the value of urban farming to residents and contributing to society through offering farmlands for use in time of disasters. As the government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will start full-fledged discussions on tax reform and budget compilation for fiscal 2014, we hope they will implement tax measures and other systems to support development of urban farming.
In its policy book for fiscal 2013 released in May, the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives’ national youth organization pointed to development of urban farming as one of its major policy pillars.
Based on the policy book, the organization’s subcommittee for urban farming made proposals to an urban farming study group made up of LDP lawmakers. The subcommittee members called for a revision in tax systems and tough compliance requirements for obtaining designation as urban agricultural areas – urban estate with preferential property tax treatment. They also stressed the role of urban farming as providers of fresh agricultural products, green space and evacuation site in time of disasters.
We highly evaluate the young farmers’ actions, which went beyond mere requests to include specific proposals and solutions based on their own farming practices. Urban farmers tend to face groundless criticisms such as being given preferential treatment in terms of taxes. Their attitude of making proposals after working to improve the status quo by themselves will definitely prompt other people to take action in various situations.
The young farmers are actively making proposals not only to the central government and the LDP, but also to local governments in three major metropolitan areas – Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya – and other urban prefectures and cities. Their proposals are persuasive because they are not based on current policies but on individual farmers’ demands in each region.
The policy book lists concerns such as decline in urban agricultural areas, increase in farming-related neighborhood problems due to lack of communication among communities and insufficient use of inheritance support measures, and indicates solutions and proposals according to individual cases.
In order to solve such problems, the policy book calls for the need to explain to other residents the raison d’etre for operating farms in urban areas, which goes beyond the matter of productivity. It also suggests creation of a disaster prevention farm system, in which urban farms become a base for providing meals to evacuees in addition to just being designated as a temporary evacuation area. We hope the system will be introduced in urban areas.
In addition to their own concerns, the policy book states various issues which should be tackled in cooperation with the JA group, including dietary education and establishment of “social welfare farms” where handicapped people and elderly people can live and engage in farming. They also ask the government to establish a law concerning urban farming development, relax compliance requirements for delaying inheritance tax payment, and improve the system allowing owners of urban agricultural lands who have difficulty continuing farming to ask municipal governments to purchase their lands or find someone who can take over the operation.
For further development of urban farming, we strongly demand the government to reflect the proposals of urban farmers in future tax measures and budget drafting.
(Dec. 7, 2013)