Government will no longer be responsible for stable rice supply and price

A Food Agency panel on November 29 issued a report proposing that the government will fully withdraw itself from measures to stabilize the production and price of rice, the Japanese staple food.

While there is an increasing demand for domestically-produced farm goods among consumers, the new measures will disrupt the rice price, discourage willingness of farmers to produce, devastate farm land, and decrease the food self-sufficiency ratio.

Akahata of December 3 said that this review of rice policies arises from the contradiction between deregulation of imported-rice and the policy of cutting rice acreage.

Although rice paddies have been reduced, the rice price is continuously falling due to the rise in rice imports and drop in rice consumption. About 40% or one million hectares of all rice fields are now abandoned as non-producing acreage.

The government, consequently, got on the Koizumi Cabinet's "structural reform" drive in order to walk out of the managerial responsibility of demand and supply of rice as well as the rice price, and will leave it in the hands of farm families, agricultural co-ops, or municipalities.

Under the present measures, the government buys 60 kilograms of rice for 16,000 yen, but the new measures will enable the government to pay only 3,000 yen for the same amount.

The new government measures will run counter to the Provision Law aiming at a stable demand and supply of the Japanese main foods as well as their prices.

It is internationally common sense that market forces alone cannot operate in the agricultural sector.

Governments of the United States, Europe, and other Asian countries, are more involved in agricultural policies, including financial assistance to farmers.

Amid the global food shortage, it is an international duty to safeguard agriculture and Japan's paddy fields. The new measures, however, will further degrade the food self-sufficiency ratio in Japan, which is only 40 percent now.

It is inevitable that the new measures will meet with a backlash from farm households and agricultural co-ops. (end)