No.63 "Inagi Agricultural Interaction School" Opening

Inagi Newsletter February 15, 2017 Edition

This program, which started on January 19, 2017, is the first volunteer training course for agricultural support in Inagi City. I serve as the Chairperson, and the Chairperson of the Agricultural Committee acts as the organizer. The classroom instructors are staff from the JA Tokyo Minami Inagi branch, and the practical training instructors are Agricultural Committee members.
The agricultural support volunteer system aims to assist farmers who are struggling to continue their farming operations due to aging and a lack of successors by providing free assistance from those willing to support agricultural work, while also deepening citizens' understanding of agriculture through interaction with farmers.
The volunteer system itself had been trialed in Inagi City before, but at that time, applicants were directly introduced to farmers for assistance, which caused difficulties for both farmers and volunteers, and unfortunately, it did not last long.
Therefore, in re-challenging this system, we took time to discuss it with the Agricultural Committee and conducted visits to advanced cities, resulting in a decision to have participants engage in agricultural support after acquiring the minimum knowledge and skills through a one-year training course.
By the way, the challenges in urban fringe agriculture are considered to be twofold: issues related to urban planning and taxation, and the lack of successors.

First, regarding the first point, the concept of the City Planning Act established in 1968 reflected the housing shortage of the time, which aimed to convert agricultural land within urbanization areas into residential land within 10 years. The revised Production Greenery Act of 1992 set a condition of 30 years of continued farming to avoid the application of residential land taxation for designated production greenery, which is said to have raised the hurdle for designation and encouraged urbanization. The Basic Act on Urban Agriculture established in 2015 aims to ensure the stable continuation of urban agriculture and contribute to the formation of a good urban environment through the appropriate and sufficient exertion of diverse functions, marking a policy shift towards the conservation of suburban farmland for the first time.
Therefore, while we are requesting necessary measures from the national and local governments, there have been no amendments to the system regarding inheritance tax and others at this time, and there is no new support for continued farming from a tax perspective. This issue will continue to be requested for system amendments to the national government through the mayor's association, but it is a challenging issue to resolve at the municipal level.
Next, regarding the second point, we expect that the issue of a lack of successors can achieve certain effects through the functioning of the agricultural volunteer support system.
The first phase of this program started recruitment last September, and due to a large number of applications, we selected 10 individuals through a lottery from those who passed the qualification review.
I understand that there will be hardships during cold and hot days, but please take care of your health, and I pray that everyone completes the program safely.