The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) held a tasting event of ice cream made with an ingredient of extremely rare onions called “Sapporo Yellow” at its headquarter in Tokyo on August 22. The production of “Sapporo Yellow” originated at Higashi-ku, Sapporo in Hokkaido. The onions of “Sapporo Yellow” are still produced only by a small number of farmers in the Higashi-ku area of Sapporo city. These farmers have worked together with local store owners in manufacturing special ice cream with the ingredient of “Sapporo Yellow.” The manufacturer of the ice cream made good use of a rich taste and flavor of the onion. Leaders of LDP’s Agriculture and Forestry Division … Continue reading →

Rice flour has been increasingly used as weaning food in Kumamoto prefecture, since a number of parenting mothers found out its characteristic features that it is not only an allergy-free food, but also can be easily cooked. The ingredient of rice flour is used for preparing various dishes including a soup or source thickened with the flour and instant rice porridge. At the shelters for earthquake’s victims in the Kumamoto region, the rice flour played an active part as an emergency food for babies and infants. Their lives have been saved with the flour particularly where relief goods were less supplied. An idea of using the rice flour as weaning … Continue reading →

A group of researchers of the Research Faculty of Agriculture of Hokkaido University, headed by Professor Noboru Noguchi, demonstrated an orderly running of four driverless tractors at the University’s campus in Sapporo city on August 18. The four robot tractors were remotely controlled by an operator through a monitoring system. These tractors were automatically driven with the global positioning system (GPS). Before the driverless tractors begin to work, information on running courses on a farm has been put into their respective programming. Receiving GPS’s signals as well as those sent from the terrestrial station for correcting position errors, the four tractors could run almost exactly on the course remotely controlled … Continue reading →

A training program for agricultural newcomers, implemented by Oita Prefectural Government, has achieved a remarkable result in helping the newcomers from other prefectures to settle in the Oita prefecture. Practical training courses such as one-year trial of farm management have received a good reputation among the newcomers in agriculture. Under the current training system, the number of agricultural newcomers from other prefectures has continuously increased from 22 persons in 2011 to 58 persons in 2015. The Prefectural Government supports the new entrants in farming from other prefectures by providing an empty house to them, which is indispensable for new farmers moving to a rural society. This support is also helpful … Continue reading →