The number of farms which have signed the so-called family management agreement marked a record high of 55,435 in 2015, up 2.3 percent from a year before, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The increase is attributable to the fact that farmers have become more aware of the merits of creating such agreements. The ministry this month began showing on its website a list of successful cases of utilizing the agreement in an effort to further encourage signing of such agreements. In terms of prefectures, Tochigi and Kumamoto showed the largest year-on-year increase with 103 and 101 farms respectively, followed by 90 for Aichi and 79 for … Continue reading →

Tomoya Kawaguchi Some agricultural production corporations are working to expand exports of processed foods, amid increasing awareness toward safe, healthy foods in Western countries. They plan to sell their products by attracting attention to their long shelf life even without preservatives. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries hopes such moves will encourage farmers’ expansion of business to food processing and marketing, as well as boosting agricultural exports. “Domestically-produced items will appeal to consumers abroad if we can effectively publicize their high quality,” said a ministry official. Kashiwazaki Fruit and Vegetables Corp., an agricultural production corporation in Oirase, Aomori Prefecture, exports black aged garlic to more than 10 countries in … Continue reading →

  Senior special writer, Masaru Yamada The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries plans to join a global initiative proposed by the French government to capture a large amount of carbon in agricultural soils. The idea under the so-called “4 per 1000” initiative is to increase the carbon stock of agricultural and forest soils by 0.4 percent every year to reduce emission of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Measures to prevent carbon from flowing out of soils include plowing in crop residues and manures and planting cover crops to avoid soil erosion. Such measures can also help recover fertility of agricultural soils degraded by excessive, repeated cultivation. … Continue reading →