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Report
No.241204 |
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Environmental restoration for paddy fields Farm households in Japan, South Korea and China that aim at the environmental restoration for paddy fields through organic rice farming now meet on a regular basis. The practice has been carried out on an individual household basis so far. In Japan, however, a research is increasingly conducted on creatures that live in rice fields, and ordinary citizens are getting involved in it. With the introduction of the relevant legislation, local governments have started to turn their attention to the organic farming. It is desirable that the collaboration among industry, government and academia should establish techniques that are available for many farm households so as to promote the effort. Korea-China-Japan Conference on Sustainable Rice Farming Technologies, and Dissemination of Environmentally Creative Rice Farming for Environmental Restoration regularly holds a meeting that is hosted by farm households, environmental groups, researchers and others from one of the three countries in rotation. Recently the 8th meeting was organized in Tochigi Prefecture in Japan, being attended by some 300 people, and adopted a joint statement that contains an effort in the establishment and dissemination of technologies in harmony with the climate in each country. Being "environmentally creative" is not only to conserve the environment, but also to ensure the revival of animals and plants, which disappeared from rice fields due to the use of pesticide or otherwise, to improve the environment. In line with the idea, the trilateral conference has dealt with winter-flooded rice fields that are known to accelerate the bio-diversity and with research activities on creatures along with technologies at the earlier stage. It has played a certain role in the identification and introduction of good practices. It was the third time for the conference to hold a meeting in Japan. Technology officials from the national and local governments as well as researchers reportedly constituted a greater portion of the Japanese attendees of the meeting than the past two occasions. This seems to have reflected the introduction of the relevant legislation. Law Concerning the Promotion of Organic Farming took effect in December of 2006 that obligates national and local governments to push forward the organic farming. Based on the law, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries developed the basic principles for promoting organic farming in April of this year. They contain an objective of the formulation of a plan to promote organic farming by all the prefectures by FY 2011. One of the other objectives is the establishment of a cultivation technology system that will ensure the stabilization in terms of quality and yield by FY 2011. To this end, it is noted that the combination of technologies are indispensable that will be developed by test/research institutes, universities, farm households and private entities. Mr. Mitsukuni Inaba, Director of "Minkan Inasaku Kenkyujo (meaning 'private rice farming institute')" which is a specified nonprofit corporation and one of the groups that organized the meeting, had said, "Dominant view in Japan has been that the government has science-based technologies while technologies of private sector are exemplary farming practices that can not be disseminated. Both technologies, however, have their advantages and disadvantages," and had looked for the deeper interaction with test/research institutes that had been rare. A wide range of methods is available for organic rice farming. Close cooperation among stakeholders should be necessary so as to establish a technology one by one that is suitable for the dissemination. Without the reproduction by farm households, the technology established will not ensure the sustainable restoration of paddy field environment. For example, Tomioka city in Kobe Prefecture, which has been committed to the release of artificially bred storks into the wild, certifies paddy fields that provide good habitat to creatures, for branding of rice. Concerted efforts of relevant organizations will be required to inform the public about the significance of the environmental restoration and the productive nature that paddy fields should have had in order to establish the evaluation of price that adequately rewards the hard work of production. （Editorial from Nihon Nogyo Shimbun on August 16, 2007） |
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