THE government headquarters for resuscitation of food, agriculture, forestry and fisheries … adopted a basic action plan to strengthen Japan’s primary industries. …The government needs to take necessary budgetary measures to quickly implement the action plan. As expected, the government plans to pay a large amount of income compensation to farmers who suffer when the prices of their products fall below production costs. One problem is where to find the necessary funds, which are expected to amount to several hundred billion yen a year. Another problem is how to design the income compensation scheme — which is already in force for farmers growing rice, wheat and soy beans — to produce the best result in raising the efficiency of Japan’s agricultural production. …

As a major goal for Japan’s agriculture, the action plan calls for increasing Japan’s food self-sufficiency to 50 per cent from the current 39 per cent. … — (Nov 1)