Congress finishes

The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists' congress in Japan has now closed.
Sendai – Japan's third largest city – was the setting for Saturday's grand finale which saw the 180-plus delegates tuck into a most magnificent sponsored meal in the plushest of dining halls. The meal include smoked ham of pure date red pork, Kosode Sushi of Matsushima Anago, Sanriku seafood pie, Miyiagi Prefecture Beef and Mushroom rot with horseradish sauce and creme brulee.
The entertainment came from a troop of dancing warriors, and the post-dinner bash back in the Excel Home. For those with a stronger constitution – the Aussies, Dutch, a Norwegian, Canadians and three Brits –the late night talking and dancing bars of Sendai allowed the socialising to continue.
Saturday had earlier seen two seminars, one of which I really failed to understand the purpose of and another featuring former EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler on a panel with Japanese rice grower Youetsu Sasaki, Canadian professor Anne McDonald who works in Japan and Marcia Zarley Taylor, chairman of the American Agri Editors Association.
This was recorded by Japan's HNK TV and is due to be screened on October 7.
Discussion centred on rice and the culture that goes with it. That culture has been very evident over the last week as every available production acre – even the gaps between the homes in the cities and towns – has rice growing on it.
But Japan has a problem and that's with its 2million farmers, 75% of whom are over 65. Income for 1.2million of them is less than £4,290 a year. On a wider front there are 1.7million earning less than £21,000 and only 150,000 earning more than that.
That point was not lost on Mr Fischler, the architect of the Agenda 2000 reforms to Europe's Common Agricultural Policy and who also secured the end of production-based support in the EU.
He said there was a need for Japan's agricultural sector to diversify, a point I have to agree with, especially as the nation produces more rice than it needs and actively discourages cheaper imports with an 800% tariff.