By Cheng Yu, Zhang Yunhua, Research Department of Rural Economy, Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC)

Research Report No 181, 2014 (Total No 4680)

Abstract:

Over the past 20 years, the agriculture sector in Japan has been perplexed with such problems as a lack of new farmers, a decrease of cultivated land and a substantial part of cultivated land being left idle, declining agricultural production capacity, and a reduced food self-efficiency rate. As one of the countermeasures, Japan has been strengthening the large-scale farmland management system. In 2012, the "Person, Farmland Plan" was adopted along with some fiscal and financial support measures to foster young farmers. In addition, by strengthening business foundation and getting support from the "Supporting Fund for Agglomeration-Based Management" and the "Supporting Fund for Farmland Agglomeration", Japan has made efforts to gather farmland in the hands of core agricultural operators and established intermediate farmland management agencies to facilitate farmland circulation and farmland group management. Moreover, the Agricultural Land Law was revised to relax the restrictions on land leasing for industrial and commercial businesses. The experience of Japan's efforts to promote large-scale farmland management can be used as reference in China's modernization-oriented agricultural development. By strictly standardizing the circulation and use of farmland, efforts should be made to gather farmland in the hands of operators of scale management in an orderly and reasonably manner, in addition to giving scale management operators and young professional farmers some policy support in funds, training and sector development.