Rice planting seen flat after end of output adjustment

February 28, 2018

Tokyo- Rice planting for harvest during 2018 is seen generally flat from the previous year across Japan, following the end of the government's production adjustment policy this year, the agriculture ministry said Tuesday.

Planting of rice, excluding that for processed food and feed, is projected to be flat in 36 of the 47 prefectures, reflecting concerns about a fall in rice prices on a possible production increase without the adjustment policy.

Rice planting is expected to expand in the northeastern prefectures of Aomori, Iwate, Akita and Fukushima and the western prefectures of Tottori and Yamaguchi, but shrink in the eastern prefecture of Chiba, the western prefectures of Osaka, Wakayama and Kochi and the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima.

In many places across the country, rice will be planted around the Golden Week holiday period in early May.

The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has decided to scrap the output adjustment policy as part of its agricultural sector reform initiative.

The central government will no longer get involved in output planning by prefectural governments or pay subsidies to rice farmers for production cuts.

Meanwhile, domestic rice consumption is declining at an annual pace of 80,000 tons, in line with the Westernization of the diet in Japan.

Rice prices have still been on an uptrend in recent years, thanks to the government's production-capping policy. Jiji Press