menu

An announcement of workshop “Which issues are important to discuss with regard to family farming in developed and developing countries? -With Invited researchers from CIRAD-” (ended)

An announcement of workshop

“Which issues are important to discuss with regard to family farming in developed and
developing countries? -With Invited researchers from CIRAD-”

 1.Purpose of the workshop

French researchers from CIRAD will come to Japan and visit Kyoto, They are representatives of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) which reported “Investing in smallholder agriculture for food security”.

The United Nations has dubbed 2014 as the International Year of Family Farming. In view of such problems as climate change, starvation and social development, international organizations such as Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) require the member countries to change their policies, encouraging large scale farming, while also attaching importance to small scale-family farming. While the International Year of Family Farming is said to focus on developing countries mainly, the High Level Panel has stated that agriculture in developed countries will be highlighted as well. For developed countries, while non-entrepreneurial family-run farming dominates European agriculture, it is promoted in Japan to switch to entrepreneurial farming and for off-farm enterprises to enter into farming. The Farm Management Society in Japan has discussed about family-run farming and entrepreneurial farming in previous annual meetings and reconstructed the idea of family-run farming, but these discussions have not achieved the requirements mentioned in the UN report yet.

We plan to have another workshop with the French researchers again in the next spring 2015, to exchange knowledge about not only the current situation, but also relevant policies and the social understanding of family farming in France and Japan. Moreover, a comparison is needed with regard to the French and the Japanese approaches to and results from studies on agriculture in developing countries. Furthermore, we would like to seek future cooperation for study between French and Japanese academies.

Their visiting in Japan this time will be the first step for the coming workshop in 2015, as they will introduce the discussion on the CFS panel and its points. We are also explaining Japanese situation and exchanging opinions with them.

2.The date and venue

13:00 – 16:00, Sunday, 23 November, 2014

The meeting room, the 1st floor of Chuo-tou, Nougakubu-Sougoukan, Department of Agriculture, Kyoto University

3.Panellists

Dr. Pierre-Marie BOSC, Senior researcher of CIRAD
“Family Farming in the World: The Roles and Present Problems”

Dr. Jean-Michel Sourisseau, Senior Researcher of CIRAD
“A Future Strategy for Sustainability of Family Farming

Dr. Yoko Niiyama, Professor of Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University
“The Spread of Family-run Faming in Japanese Context and its Survival Conditions”