OSAKA, Feb. 16 ― Agriculture should be taught in primary school, Japan’s most powerful farm group chef has said.
Toru Nakaya, chairman of the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA-ZENCHU), spoke in Osaka on Feb. 15 with Masaru Sato, a former Japanese diplomat and now noted commentator, over the future state of agriculture.
“Even teachers in school nowadays have no clue about agriculture, no understanding,” Nakaya said. “They consider farm products as same as industrial goods.
“I think that agriculture should be an essential subject at school,” he added.
Nakaya emphasized that school going children can visit local farms to learn and appreciate where their food comes from.
Sato agrees studying agriculture at an early age will make learners appreciate agriculture’s role in the society.
Sato said: “It is very important to learn the fact that agriculture is very affected by weather and to experience growing farm products is now easy.”