TOKYO, Aug. 24 ― Japan’s agriculture ministry has finalized its request budges on agriculture for fiscal 2019, highlighting a big boost in farm land improvement at 530.5 billion yen.
The chairman of the National Federation of Land improvement Association is Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
The budget request also includes 5 billion yen in the development of AI, or technologies which perform tasks that are characteristic of human intelligence in the sector.
The request on agriculture-related budgets for the fiscal year starting from April 2019 totals 2.727 trillion yen. That was up by 74.4 billion yen from its budget request for fiscal 2018.
The agriculture ministry is expected to submit the budget request to the finance ministry at the end of August.