Impacts in focus
ARISE in action

8 | JT Group Sustainability Report

Business skills training in Malawi

Baking classes in Brazil

In 2012, in partnership with U.S.-based NGO Winrock International and the International Labour Organization (ILO), JTI launched amulti-year program, Achieving Reduction of Child Labor in Supporting Education (ARISE), with the aim of helping to eliminate childlabor in the tobacco growing communities where we do business.
The ARISE program works to tackle the social and economic factors that cause tobacco farmers to engage children in hazardous
work and provides a long-term, sustainable solution to the problems associated with child labor in tobacco growing communities.
ARISE aims to ensure that children are not part of the workforce by providing education and engaging with tobacco farming
communities in various ways. This ranges from providing educational materials, after-school tutoring, and mentoring, to vocational
training for older children in farming schools. Through ARISE, we work with communities to improve their understanding of thelong-term value of education, and the future prospects that it can bring. ARISE also works to replace lost income from child laborers
through Family Support Scholarships, which can enable parents or guardians to send their children to school.
Through long-term investment and expansion of the program, we aim to ensure the ongoing prosperity of children and their families.

Working to eliminate child labor
In Mthyoka, a village 33km from Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, thecommunity depends on agriculture and small-scale businesses
to sustain their livelihoods. During the intensive growing
seasons, it has historically been regarded as normal practice forsmallholder farmers to use their own children, or employ otherchildren, to work on their farms.
When ARISE commenced in Mthyoka village, 30 of the mostvulnerable households were identified in an effort to curb
this trend. A Community Child Labor Committee (CCLC) wasestablished in the village and the mothers within these 30
vulnerable households were each given financial support, tohelp develop individual and group businesses, on the condition
that they enrolled and maintained their children in school.
ARISE aims to facilitate economic empowerment withinhouseholds in order to alleviate financial dependency onchildren’s labor and income. Together with the financial supportand some additional training provided by ARISE, the womenestablished local businesses and initiated a village savings andloan scheme to enable borrowing. By 2013, their savings meantthat the lost income from removing their children from farmlabor had been recouped through their new business ventures.
The women re-distributed this money according to the initialinvestment made by each of them, and they began saving
once more. As a result of ARISE, their children are attending
school on a regular basis, and the women were able to enroll 21
more children from the community into school, thanks to theirsavings, as well as purchasing play equipment for after-school
programs.
The CCLC members monitor the school attendance of children
and visit small-scale tobacco farmers in the village to assess theextent of any child labor.

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Impacts in focus
Supporting recovery
after the 2011 earthquake
in Tōhoku

10 | JT Group Sustainability ReportNew rice variety developed by theJT Group set to revitalize local agriculture
October 2013 saw 12 farmers from Rikuzentakata City in Iwate Prefecture, one of the hardest-hit areas from the 2011 earthquake andtsunami in Japan, harvest their crop of a new rice variety. It was a significant moment, and those working to restore agriculture in theregion have placed high expectations on the new rice variety, ‘Takata no yume’, developed by the JT Group. Ukyo Niinuma, who hasleased the family’s land to another farmer to grow Takata no yume, said, “It’s a delight to see the new variety of rice growing in ourfield with its robust growth.”
Takata no yume was originally developed by the JT Group’s Plant Innovation Center (PIC) in 2000 as a new rice variety to suit theclimate of the Tōhoku region. It was officially registered as ‘Iwata 13’, but before it was commercialized, our agribusiness was closed
in 2003, leaving the seeds dormant inside the PIC’s seed bank.

Ukyo Niinuma, who has leased the family’s land to another farmer to grow Takata no yume

Iwata 13 becomes Takata no yume

The Great East Japan Earthquake struck the Tōhoku region
on March 11, 2011. The city of Rikuzentakata was hit by thetsunami and suffered unprecedented damages to its fields andcrops. Nine months after the earthquake, the JT Group donatedthe ownership rights and dormant seeds of Iwata 13 to the cityof Rikuzentakata in a bid to restore the city’s primary industry
and the livelihoods of its residents.
In April 2012, we set out to identify local farmers to cultivate therice. At first, there was little uptake as farmers were reluctant tocultivate a nameless rice variety with no previous track record,
especially in light of the challenges faced since the tsunami.
However, with the help of the local government, we were able tofind a farmer keen to grow the rice.

the farm on numerous occasions to provide assistance. In theautumn, soon after the first harvest was completed, the rice wasentered in a tasting event and its taste was highly appreciated.
At the same time, a competition was held to establish a newname for the rice variety and ‘Takata no yume’ was the winning
name, meaning the ‘dream of Takata’.

A symbol of the reconstruction

Takata no yume has become a symbol of the reconstructionof Tōhoku. In 2013, 12 farmers harvested a total of 28 tons.
Although only a small fraction of Iwate Prefecture’s annual rice
crop of 300,000 tons, it is nevertheless an important first step forthe people of Rikuzentakata City, who welcomed the JT Group’scommitment to assist in the reconstruction efforts.

Taste was the most important consideration for the first
cultivation, and JT employees with agricultural expertise visited

In 2014, the farmers aim to produce 150 tons and expand sales
to the general public. We will also continue to provide support in
helping to revitalize Rikuzentakata City’s agriculture.

Rice balls made of Takata no yume

A grower harvesting rice

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