  Basic program on agriculture must be effective in increasing food self-sufficiency -- Akahata editorial, March 12 (excerpts)A government panel to review the basic plan on food, agriculture, and rural villages came up with a draft new basic plan for the next decade. The current program, approved by the Cabinet in March 2003, is to be reviewed this year. No remedy to critical situation The new program fails to set a new target for the food self-sufficiency rate and postpones the deadline for achieving the current program's target of 45 percent (in calorific basis) from 2010 to 2015. It stresses the need to restructure agriculture so that most of agricultural management will be in the hands of producers on large farms. It calls for further liberalization of the agricultural market and the use of market forces according to the demands of the United States and business leaders. Clearly, this policy calls for small- and- medium-sized producers and districts to be eliminated in order to allow corporations to enter agriculture in the name of stability of management. On the other hand, the panel report has to admit that people's confidence in food safety is considerably swayed and a critical situation has developed with the fragile production structure due to the aging of farmers along with the declining number of farmers. The cause of this crisis is the Liberal Democratic Party policy that gives top priority to increasing agricultural imports, unreservedly accepting the World Trade Organization (WTO) agricultural treaty prohibiting Japan to subsidize its farmers to increase production, and abandoning price policy and other protective measures including import regulations. What should be reviewed is this government policy that liberalized agricultural imports at an enormous cost to domestic producers and allowed the market forces to control production and prices. However, the panel report is based on the premise that the government policy is to be continued and strengthened. This is not the way to achieve a food self-sufficiency target or develop multilateral functions of agriculture. Farmers matter The government must be responsible and establish a policy to protect agriculture by supporting prices for producers and taking necessary international measures. Agricultural policy should not be one of giving favor to a handful of large-scale producers and agribusinesses. Only by helping those who are actually farming, will more people go into the farming and increase production. (end) |