MAFF to Promote Agricultural Policy Reform

On November 21, 2003, the Agriculture Minister of Japan announced a plan to promote agricultural policy reforms, as part of a larger new basic plan for food, agriculture and farming communities.

To realize its future vision, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) will promote reforms, focusing on the following issues:
* promoting education relating to food,
* concentrating and giving higher priority to assistance for maintenance and development of farming as a profession,
* restructuring the agricultural land system to encourage a wide range of human resources to join agricultural pursuits,
* establishing policies to promote conservation of the environment and local resources such as farmland and water, and
* seeking better coexistence between large cities and farm or fishing communities, and promoting more exchanges between them.

The reforms will be promoted with the following points in mind:
1. emphasis on the consumer's point of view,
2. a shift from governmental management to the private sector, and decentralization of power from the central to local governments, and
3. responding to globalization of multilateral trade, as is represented by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and free trade agreements (FTA).

While the MAFF plans to complete the new basic plan in March 2005, it will try to implement some applicable projects in advance as needed, even within this fiscal year.





Posted: 2004/02/10 09:15:45 AM
Japanese version