Tokachi: The Food Basket of Japan
As I rummaged over Maeda San's Tokachi Popcorn, made up of the maize from his own farmland, an urge to scribble down my thoughts and observations about the agricultural system of Tokachi popped up. I am writing this article from a cosy corner of the Obihiro JICA Center. I came here to learn about Regional Agribusiness Promotion through the introduction of the Market-Oreinted Agriculture and Value-Chain Model.
With Mr. Maeda, a farmer who started the Microwave Popcorn factory.
Tokachi is one of the sub-prefectures in Japan with a 1200% food sufficiency rate. It can easily feed four million Japanese. It produces 14.1% of the total national food quantity. It is vehemently praised as the food basket and food kingdom of Japan. On the other hand, Tokachi just shares 2.87% of Japan's land area and 0.6% of the total population. It experiences snow and temperatures freezes as low as -30'C making it impossible to do any farming during the winter months. The weather is similar if not more severe than in Lunana but the difference is that our Lunaps peacefully retreat to their summer residence for vacation. It is the time to spend the hard-earned bounty.
Tokachi farmlands during the winter
Anyway, what made Tokachi achieve such an incredible rate of food self-sufficiency? How did they do it? Why people are so committed to farming when one can easily earn a lot otherwise. We may go on questioning but one can connect the dots easily if we listen to their stories. I will share some of the lessons learned from the Sensis and personal observations made from numerous study visits on the current situation of the agricultural system in Tokachi, briefly.
- Farmers: The warriors in the food kingdom of Japan
I was intrigued when I heard that one needs to be certified to be a farmer here. Later, I learned that the certification system actually ensures the standard of the farming system like a soldier requiring standard skill sets to go to war. Almost every farmer is educated at least in junior high school. Strikingly, everyone from whom I received lectures was a farmer and all of them went to university either within or overseas. One of them has voluntarily resigned from civil service to become a farmer. These people are the warriors who pushed their limits to achieve 1200% food self-sufficiency.
One thing that amazes me is their mentality and attitude towards the farming activities. Although it is often tedious, being a farmer in Tokachi is one of the preferred jobs. We were introduced to a group of young ladies who started farming but in trending clothes and town-girl make-up. For a while, I thought they were Japanese actresses shooting photographs on the farm.
- Japan Agriculture Cooperatives: Backbone of the farming system
The Japan Agriculture Cooperatives (JA) is a very strong and large public organization in Japan. Across the country, they have more than 4 million farmer members and hundreds of farmer cooperatives. Initially, when the lecturers were mentioning about it, I mistook it for a government agency only to learn that the government has a minimal role in it. It is formed and managed by and for the farmers. In addition to research and development services, the JA provides post-harvest and processing services to farmers who lack the technology to do so at their farms. Moreover, JA buys the farm produce, processes, packages, and distributes it in the market which basically means that it induces a sense of motivation to the farmers to grow more every year. That's why, farmers consider JA as an indispensable organization for the sustainability of large agricultural farms.
Tokachi farmlands during other seasons
- Agri-technology: Alternatives to the ageing and declining population
As we know, the population has been in decline and to see it otherwise is a distant horizon for Japan currently. Consequently, the active population in the agricultural sector has decreased sharply often finding no one to inherit the farmland. Nevertheless, the production value of Tokachi has been on the rise every year because of machinery and agri-technologies tailored to replace the human workforce. They use Artificial Intelligence and state-of-the-art technologies from the research phase to the distribution of the farm products which is more advanced than human skills and energy.
- Research and Development: Climate-resistant crop and Market-led agricultural production
Research and Development are one of the bases of the successful agricultural system in Tokachi. Besides JA, Research centres (government agencies) specifically universities consistently study, learn and develop crops which are resistant to changing weather and which have a high demand in the market. I learnt that they stay on the farms, study and work like a farmer to develop such crops. Moreover, private companies such as wholesalers and product developers (bakeries, wineries, restaurants and so on) do the same to get the desired agricultural products. In essence, the customer and the farmers are so close, which guarantees an immediate market. This case demonstrates how strong and smooth market linkages are in Tokachi.
Many factors contribute towards the successful agricultural system in Tokachi in addition to the mentioned points. Whatsoever, I have observed that these components synchronise so well that everything is in place to ensure minimum disruption in the agriculture sector from the production to the marketing phase. However, the aforementioned points are largely applicable to large commercial farmers only. To protect and promote small-scale farmers, Japan has introduced the idea of sixth agricultural industrialization. They have alternatives to everything which demonstrates the development and maturity of an agricultural society.
Tokachi took more than 140 years to reach this far and Bhutan is just a decade into the second half of the century since the commencement of the five-year plan in 1961. We have cases of success and failure in front of us from which we can learn, adapt and innovate. It is wrong for me to compare the two but we can do wonders if we can replicate and contextualize it into our own settings.
**Tashi Delek**
Sincerely yours
YESHI
