No.63 "Inagi Agricultural Interaction School" Opening

Inagi Newsletter February 15, 2017 Edition

This course, which started on January 19, 2017, is the first volunteer training program for agricultural support in Inagi City. I serve as the director, with the Chairperson of the Inagi City Agricultural Committee as the organizer. The classroom instructors are staff from the JA Tokyo Minami Inagi branch, and the practical training instructors are requested from the 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 shortage of successors, by having individuals who are willing to support agricultural work do so free of charge, while also deepening citizens' understanding of agriculture through interaction with farmers.
The volunteer system itself was previously trialed in Inagi City, but at that time, applicants were directly introduced to farmers to assist them, which caused difficulties for both the farmers and the volunteers, and unfortunately, it did not last long.
Therefore, in the re-challenge of this system, we took the time to discuss it together with the Agricultural Committee and conducted visits to advanced cities. As a result, we decided that after acquiring the minimum knowledge and skills through a training course of about one year, participants will be involved in agricultural support.
By the way, the challenges in suburban agriculture are considered to be two points: issues related to urban planning and taxation, and the problem of a 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 Agricultural Production Greenery Act, revised in 1992, stipulated that if designated as production greenery and exempt from residential land taxation, a condition of continuing agricultural operations for 30 years was required. This was said to raise the hurdle for production greenery designation and encourage 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 agricultural land for the first time.
Therefore, while we are requesting necessary measures from the national and local governments, there have been no amendments to the inheritance tax system at this time, and there is no new support for continued farming from a tax perspective. This issue will continue to be raised with the national government through the mayor's association, but it is a challenge that is difficult to resolve at the municipal level.
Next, regarding the second point, we expect that the issue of a lack of successors can be addressed to some extent through the functioning of the agricultural volunteer system.
The first phase of this program started accepting applications in September last year, and due to the large number of applications, we selected 10 individuals through a lottery from those who passed the qualification screening.
I understand that there will be hardships such as cold and hot days ahead, but please take care of your health, and I pray that everyone completes successfully.