Japan's Agricultural ministry to promote organic farming
The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo), reprinted with permission from Organic Monitor Dated: 13 June 2007
The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry next autumn will for the first time initiate a project to promote high-level organic farming skills and the organic cultivation of agricultural products.
The ministry will call on individual farmers with specialized knowledge--such as farming without pesticides and chemical fertilizers--to cooperate with the research into their techniques.
Information gained through the project will be shared with new agricultural businesses in a bid to proliferate organic farming throughout the nation.
Though the ministry has previously studied techniques and technologies to improve the quantity and quality of agricultural products through the efficient use of pesticides and other agrichemicals, this will be the first full-scale study on organic farming.
The study was undertaken because organic farming is time- and energy-consuming, and it is highly likely that plants cultivated under the method are more vulnerable to diseases and harmful insects, or that crop yields can wildly fluctuate.
The new study will begin by interviewing individual farmers about their organic farming skills, acquired through long years of experience and experimentation.
The research aims to learn how to properly prepare soil, utilize fertilizers, and prevent damage from harmful insects and diseases when cultivating vegetables, fruits, rice and other grains.
To scientifically verify that such skills are effective, the ministry will conduct cultivation experiments at national research institutions.
The ministry plans to share information on techniques that prove to be effective with individual farmers who would like to start farming organically, as well as agricultural corporations concerned about the instability of organic crops.
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