The Lower House agricultural committee held regional public hearings in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, and Showa, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Monday, June 8 to listen to opinions from farmers and executives of primary agricultural co-ops (JAs) regarding the bill to revise the Agricultural Co-operative Society Law. Participants at both hearings showed understanding for the need to reform the current system of agricultural co-ops, but few of them gave full support to the bill submitted by the government, with many expressing doubt over its effect to expand farmers’ income and calling for more careful deliberation at the Diet and explanation to farmers. At the hearing held in Kanazawa, attendants expressed concerns over … Continue reading →

Daisuke Matsumoto – Qingdao, China Senior executives of the Japanese agricultural co-op group’s Fukuoka prefectural union agreed on Tuesday, June 2, to work with officials of Qingdao Agricultural University to further promote co-operative activities. The union’s President Hirofumi Kurashige and Managing Director Kiminori Motomura met Professor Li Zhonghua of the university in Qingdao on the sidelines of the inaugural meeting of the international federation to promote sixth industrialization of agriculture. Qingdao Agricultural University is the only university in China which has a college of co-operatives. As officials engaged in co-operative activities and an academic involved in a research on such activities, they exchanged opinions on Japanese and Chinese legislative revisions … Continue reading →

  Daisuke Matsumoto – Qingdao, China Agricultural organizations from six nations including Japan, China and South Korea launched a federation on Tuesday, June 2, to conduct joint research and exchange programs among farmers to promote the so-called “sixth industrialization” of agriculture, namely adding value to agriculture through processing and services. The Japanese agricultural co-ops (JA) group will join the federation to share model cases of value-added agriculture in an effort to help increase farmers’ income. A total of 206 organizations, universities and companies from Taiwan, Russia and Germany in addition to the three nations joined the federation. Members from Japan include Nakamura Gakuen University and Kyushu University, both in Fukuoka, … Continue reading →

  Hayato Niki, Chikuma Kume As agricultural co-operatives nationwide encourage their member farms to expand their acreage of rice for feed, farms in some regions are doubling the production compared with the previous year. However, in order to meet the JA group’s goal of producing 600,000 tons of rice for feed in a year, member farms need to increase their yield by 3.3 times from a year before. It is indispensable for the farms to conduct further acreage shift from table rice to rice for feed, so as to better balance supply and demand in the harvest season. Producing rice for feed “is definitely more profitable than (cultivating) table rice,” … Continue reading →

  The Norinchukin Bank announced Wednesday, May 27, that it has concluded a strategic alliance with Netherland-based Rabobank in the field of food and agriculture-related financial business. By stepping up their long-standing relationship as agricultural co-operative financial organizations, Norinchukin hopes to gain knowhow from Utrecht-based Rabobank on agricultural management expertise and exports in Netherlands, a leading exporter of farm products known for its highly productive agriculture industry. Norinchukin says the strategic alliance, the first to be signed with a foreign financial institution, will help meet the government’s goal of making the nation’s farm sector the growth industry and increasing farmers’ income. “We will deepen understanding on Netherland’s agriculture and Rabobank’s … Continue reading →