Japan Press Weekly

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2024 November 6 - 12 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Nouminren urges gov’t to improve support for dairy and livestock farmers struggling to survive

The Japan Family Famers Movement (Nouminren) on November 6 petitioned the Ministry of Agriculture, Foresty and Fisheries to improve measures to support dairy and livestock farmers currently facing a crisis situation.

In the petitioning, Nouminren pointed out that dairy and livestock farmers are hit hard by the rising cost of imported fertilizers and other production materials. They noted that despite the government’s urgent support measures implemented last year, the number of dairy farmers decreased by 5.6% or 700 during the past year. In the same period, the number of beef cattle farmers and pig farmers declined by 5.4% (2,100) and 7.1% (240), respectively, according to Nouminren.

Appealing for the need to deal with this situation, the farmers’ group demanded that the ministry provide further support for dairy and livestock farmers by such means as improving the current system in order to stabilize the prices of compound feeds and create a legal framework to take production costs into consideration in order to ensure “fair prices” for dairy and livestock farmers.

Nouminren President Hasegawa Toshiro said, “The ministry should start discussing the improvement of the existing system designed to guarantee producers’ prices and compensate farmer incomes as well as of other support measures so that dairy and livestock farmers can survive the ongoing crisis.”

Past related article:
> Dairy and livestock farmers urge gov’t to take measures to help them survive crisis situation [February 15, 2023]