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WTO-SPECIAL: Japan’s Rice Farmers, a Dying Breed
By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Dec 7 (IPS) - For rice farmer Yuji Koshino, next week’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Hong Kong can turn out to be a make or break affair, especially in the light of recent concessions made by the Japanese government to the country’s long-controlled agricultural sector.
"The plight of farmers is getting worse these days. The least we can expect from the government is to protect the Japanese rice market," said Koshino, who tills three hectares of paddy fields in the small village of Niigata in northern Japan.
Koshino, 52, manages the farm along with his aging parents, while his wife has to work in the city to supplement the household income that has steadily deteriorated, he says.
The farmer worries, not only about the increasing pressure on Japan to open up its agricultural market but also looming, bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs)-especially one with Thailand, to import rice, that is in an advanced stage of finalisation.
Already, he is facing the effects of a regulation, passed in 2004, that exempts surplus rice from being sold at government guaranteed prices. According to the new measure, when there is a bumper crop, each farmer is assigned a surplus amount that is bought for around 58 US dollars per 60 kg, or half the price payable for staple rice categories.
What is more, starting 2007, large-scale farmers must adjust rice production in a way that makes small producers like Koshino feel vulnerable to speculative transactions of an open market system.
"Farmers have always felt secure producing rice because of the guaranteed price system. Without government support, we cannot compete against imports, given the aging farming population and lower prices for rice paid by the state," explained Koshino.
Koshino voices the growing concerns of Japan’s three million rice-farming households. Almost every farmer grows rice in Japan and is at the wrong end of the differences that threaten to bog down talks at the Dec. 13-18 summit.
Already, divisions over farm protectionism-as well as the opening up of markets for services and industrial items-have resulted in the jettisoning of plans for a draft accord at Hong Kong.
Agriculture is a key issue in the upcoming negotiations that has pitted rich countries, wanting to open up the global market for farm produce, against developing countries with large rural populations that are dependent on farming.
Experts explain that Japan, though a rich country, faces a situation
similar, in some ways, to that of developing countries when it comes to debates over agriculture issues at the WTO.
But, in other ways, Japan’s situation is more like that of the European Union (EU) which has come under massive pressure from developing countries to lower protective import tariffs on agricultural items.
"Japan’s agriculture exports are negligible compared to that of the EU and the United States. Thus, at the Hong Kong summit, Japan would be looking more to protect its agricultural sector rather than pressure poor countries to open up their markets," said Yoko Kitazawa, economist and head of Japan Network on Poverty and Debt, a grassroots organisation monitoring international aid.
Indeed, more than 60 percent of the national calorie intake is dependent on imports, a situation that is alarming to the Japanese public. In comparison, the figure is over 120 percent in the U.S. and 61 percent in Britain.
Japan exports less than one percent of its farm produce- mainly apples, peaches and small amounts of rice- that are sold in expensive, niche markets in places like the U.S., Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
"Cheap is not always the best in Japan," says Yoko Tomiyama, head of
the Japan Consumer Organisation. "Consumers place priority on safe food and are willing to pay for it. There is also the feeling that rice farms need to be protected, given the special role of rice in Japanese culture."
The tradition of the emperor planting rice each year to mark the harvesting season has been observed for centuries. Recently, Japanese children have been encouraged to plant rice on city roof tops and there are events to promote rice eating, often with celebrities in attendance.
Aware of the cautious public and agricultural sector sentiment towards farm imports, Tokyo is certain to resist pressure at the WTO to revise its current minimum access policy that slaps a 490 percent special tariff on rice imports.
Satoru Ito, head of the young farmers association at the influential Japan Agriculture Association (JAA), says Japan must not make further concessions to open its rice market further till Japanese farmers can be ready to face the new competition.
"We are aware that liberalisation cannot be stopped but the government must provide more funds to help farmers to meet the challenges of cheaper imports before opening up," he said.
JAA is fostering new management techniques, such as sharing rice production between farmers, as well as encouraging more investment in other kinds of agriculture such as livestock breeding. (END/2005)
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