About the merginal settlment

There was a lecture for the revival of the farm village, on 18 June at Hita city hall. Prof. Tokuno Sadao, a professor of sociology at Kumamoto univercity gave a lecture.

Suppose the rice we have every day. The price of a cup of rice is thirty yen, though the price of uncooked rice for a cup of cooked rice is fifteen yen. A retort rice costs one hundred yen and rice ball which sold at convenience store costs one hundred yen. A plate of rice which served at a restaurant costs two hundred yen.

The whole money the consumers spend for food in a year is eighty trillion yen, in contrast, the budget for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries is three trillion yen. The farmer should appeal to the consumers, not to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, You must think about how to sell agricultural products to the consumers. I was impressed with his opinion.

Meanwhile he talked about the sustinability of the farm villages called the marginal settlements. He said if your village has more than the half of latter-stage elderly people, if your sons and daughters live in near cities within an hour drive distance, you'll never mind. "If you have families who communicate by coming to take your vegetables or by coming to help you with planting rice, your village is sustainable. Don't worry." he said.

He emphasized you should pay attention to the human factor, not to the agricultural policy. It was so interesting lecture.

限界集落
6月18日　日田市役所で、農村活性化についての講演がありました。熊本大学社会学教授の徳野貞雄先生が講演しました。
わたしたちが毎日食べるごはんのことを考えてください。茶碗一杯のご飯の値段は、生の米で15円ですが炊いてあるご飯で30円です。　レトルトのご飯は10円、コンビニおにぎりは100円、レストランで出るライスは200円です。　
消費者が年間に食に使うお金は80兆円、農水省の予算は3兆円です。農家の皆さんがアピールすべきなのは農水省ではなく消費者です。　消費者にどう売るか考えるべきです。

一方、限界集落といわれる農村の持続可能性についても話しました。後期高齢者が半数を超えている村でも、娘や息子がクルマで1時間以内の近くの町に住んでいるなら心配ない、と言いました。「野菜を取りにきたり、田植えを手伝いに来たりする家族がいるなら、村はなくなりません。心配しないで」と言いました。
農政ではなくヒトに注目すべきだと強調しました。　非常に面白い講演でした。

21 June 2009