45 Pct of Younger Farmers Earn 10 M. Yen or More in Sales

May 22, 2018

Tokyo- An annual government report on agriculture showed Tuesday that 45.2 pct of farming households with workers aged 49 or younger in Japan earned 10 million yen or more in sales in 2015.

The number of farming households with younger workers totals some 140,000, or about 10 pct of the country's overall households engaging in agriculture for business, said the fiscal 2017 white paper, approved at the day's cabinet meeting.

Younger farming households enjoy sales growth by improving productivity through aggressive capital expenditure and expansion of production areas, particularly for rice growing and dairy husbandry, according to the report.

The share of households that had in 2015 at least 10 hectares of production areas stood at slightly less than 20 pct for households with farmers at 49 or below, far higher than 1.5 pct for households with no such farmers.

For families with younger workers that sell only rice, the average production area increased 1.5 times from a decade ago to 7.1 hectares, mainly reflecting brisk buying of farmland from retired farmers.

On the capital expenditure front, families with younger workers spent on average eight times the level invested by their older counterparts annually over the three years to 2015 in rice growing, which requires large equipment.

In dairy farming, the average annual spending by younger households was about three times the level for older households. Typical big projects in the sector include rebuilding of barns to automate milking.

The aggressive spending resulted in shorter working hours for younger households both in rice growing and dairy farming. The three-year averages of working hours per area and per animal for younger households were 30 to 40 pct shorter than those for families without younger workers.

While farming households are growing old and declining in numbers, the annual number of people who started farming at 49 or younger exceeded 20,000 for the third straight year in 2016, the white paper said.

"It is important for young farmers to realize efficient and stable management," it stressed. Jiji Press