A Comparative Study on Food Safety and Security
between Japan and the Democratic Republic of Congo-Applications of Modern and Traditional Agriculture to Africa1. Introduction
1.1 Back ground and Research questions
This paper aims to investigate the food security and safety issues between Japan and the DRC.
In TICAD V, the government of Japan indicated the collaborations to the African countries. The roleof the private sector is increasing in the field of ODA. And the government of Japan including JICA
is planning to expand the participation of the private sector to the social development as well.

Our motivation to conduct a comparative study is to understand the possible collaborations toincrease the food security and safety by combining two different experiences.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishery (MAFF) had introduced the guideline onorganic agricultural products in 1992, being followed by the revision of Japan AgriculturalStandards (JAS) in 1999 for the purpose of harmonization to the so-called CODEX standards
for organically produced foods. But that is not well working at present.
We have conducted several joint discussions and interview surveys in the DRC. The greenrevolution for Africa involves the production of cash crops which can be sold on the global
market. This may leave countries unable to produce food for themselves, and dependent on
chemical fertilizer and agricultural chemical. Fortunately, the agriculture in the DRC is mostly
free from green revolution and is still in the traditional agriculture. In Japan, consumersorganized a small group and started to look for safe and reliable foods. Some farmers had
realized that the modernized farming practice, which highly depended on agrochemicals andchemical fertilizers, sacrificed the nature and health of farmers themselves instead ofimprovement in agricultural productivity. A research group led by Professor Motoki Kubo at
the College of Life Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, announced on 10 December 2012,that they developed the world's first soil fertility index (SOFIX(R)) based on theassessment of soil biological characteristics. This study highlights some of the problems

facing farmers in the DRC and suggests some possible approaches toward solutions.
1.2 Problem tree and scope of the study
According to our joint discussions, we have formulated problem tree and objective tree. The main
problem we discussed was “Foods Shortage in the DRC”. There are several reasons for the shortageof the food such as limited agricultural technology, limited basic researches including soil conditions
and marketing and limited trainings.
Figure-1: Problem analysis for the foods shortage in the DRC.

PROBLEM ANALYSIS:
Increase offood imports

Effects

Limited storage

Limited market
information

Limited distribution
systemLevel 2

Level 3

Riots for foods

Increase of
the refugees

Foods Shortage in the DRC

Core Problem

CausesLevel 1

Malnutrition

Death fromhunger

Limited Research

Limited researchcapacity

Limited media forthe market
information

Limited international
collaborations

Limited production

Low agricultural
technology

Limitednationalagriculturaldevelopment policy

Limited supportingsystems

Limited statistics

Source: Author’s discussions with the researchers at University of Kinshasa in February 2014
Finally, we have decided to conduct market baseline researches to identify the marketing problems.
One of our research questions is to investigate the advantage and challenges of the private sector
initiative in the field of the food security and safety.

In our research group, we have some Japanese

private companies, challenging to expand their market in the world. We will explain why they areinterested in the study.
1.3 Motivation for the study of the Japanese side
The research motivations of the Japanese side have been identified such as promotion of the trades,
tourism and joint researches. Japanese local governments, private companies and universities areplanning to internationalize their activities to expand the economic and cultural activities. Global
economy has forced them to become more internationalized ones. TICAD V was a good chance topromote a new relationship with Africa.
Figure-2: Japanese motivation chart for the food safety and security in the DRC.
Green Innovation
at privatecompanies

Organicagriculture
TICAD V2013InternationalVolunteerism at civilsociety in Japan

Eco Tourism
promotion at localgovernments

Food crisisandshortage inthe DRC

1.4 Significance of the Study
Before TICAD V in 2013, many Japanese local governments, private companies anduniversities paid limited attention to the African development. Thanks to the TICAD V, our2

study group started joint collaboration with the researchers at University of Kinshasa andexpanded their research networks with related local governments and private companies.
In this paper, we have examined the effectiveness of the simple soil fertility index (SOFIX(R))
system in the DRC. New innovations mainly come from the private sector, since they can easily
understand the practical value of the system comparing to the public sector or academia. This is
our research hypothesis. The traditional soil monitoring system is trying to predict the precise
contents of the soil as possible as they can. And they were usually equipped with highlysophisticated measuring devices. Accordingly, it takes much costs and time. But the SOFIXsystem can be easily introduced.

2. Literature review
2.1

Lessons learned from the organic agriculture in Japan

In this chapter, we will examine the lessons learned from the present organic agriculture in
Japan. We have identified several successful rural development projects in Japan. Those aremainly focus on the organic or safety agriculture. “Wago Agricultural group” in Chiba
prefecture, Japan is one of the most successful case. Their agriculture is based upon theconsumers’ needs. They have formulated joint company to sell their products directly to theirconsumers via web based marketing. We can summarize the merits and demerit as table-1.
Table-1: Advantages and Disadvantages of two customer oriented farming
Advantages
Disadvantages
ExamplesOrganic farm Safety, Healthy,
Higher Costs, Limited Wago Agricultural
Traceability
choices
Group, Chiba Prefecture
Experimental Educational , Feelings
Time-consuming works, Moku-Moku Farm, Nara
farmof satisfaction,
Limitedaccessibility, prefecture
Eco-tourism
Educational difficulties
And the common advantages of these two approaches are to have a strong link with thecustomers. The key essence to stabilize the agricultural economy is to have a stable pricemechanism and long relationship with the customers.
2.2

Green Innovation, a key to joint work with Japanese company

A green marketing is a trend in business where companies create an image of themselves as anenvironmentally friendly organization. Many of the Japanese companies are also promoting theorganic agriculture as a new business. But not only for organic agriculture, we can also see thenew trends to promote environmental related business. Nowadays people have become moreconcerned about protection of the environment and a new format of business has emerged as“Green Business”. A Japanese big company, Panasonic is promoting lifestyles which willvirtually reduce CO2 emissions throughout the world. Eco-friendly products providing customer
value and resulting in reduced environmental impacts, are therefore of great importance.
According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing ofproducts that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Green marketing is a broader term it3

includes a wider range of activities, including product alteration, modification to themanufacturing, logistic process and simple packaging. According to Panasonic Corporate Vision,Panasonic has a vision to become the No. 1 “Green Innovation Company” in the Electronics
Industry by 2018. In Europe, we can see the similar movement. In 2007 Royal Philips
Electronics launched “EcoVision4″ program. Green Product sales rose to 45%, up from 39%
in 2011, and on track to reach the new target of 50% in 2015. These movement can encourage
private company to work with us in the DRC.
2.3 Women, Urbanization and African Development
During TICAD V in 2013, many discussions have been held for African development. One ofthe urgent issues are women’s empowerment and rapid urbanization. And for the post conflict
nations such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Violence against women in-armed conflict andin post-conflict situations were discussed. In this paper, we focus on the food security and safetyissues by empowering women and younger generations.
2.3.1 The scope of violence against women
In poor communities, little girls are often neglected education and medical care. Data fromdeveloping countries indicates that the mortality rate among girls aged one to four is higher thanthat among boys in the same age group.
Table 2: Maternal mortality estimates
RegionLifetime risk of maternal death, 1 in:South Asia

43

Sub-Saharan Africa

16

Industrialized countries

4,000

Source: UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children
The ILO defines a person as being unemployed if they are older than the minimum age,
actively looking for and available for work, and have recently not worked for at least one hour.
According to this definition, youth unemployment is estimated to be 12.8 per cent in
Sub-Saharan Africa. The works available for young people today are predominantly in urban
and rural non-farm informal sectors and smallholder agriculture. About one half of rural
employment is in non-farm informal sectors.
2.4.2 Aid to the DRC by Major Donors
We recognized various food provision projects in the DRC since they had continuous foodshortages. In the DRC an estimated 6.7 million people are in crisis and emergency foodinsecurity phases, based on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) undertaken
in December 2013. Japan’s economic cooperation in the DRC dates back to the 1970s, when thecountry was known as Zaire. Over the years, Japan extended support in building the country’sinfrastructure and in developing human resources. Unfortunately, these activities came to a halt4

in 1991 due to the civil war. Following the presidential elections in 2006, Japan started thebilateral assistance to the DRC. In 2008, Japan started the Emergency Grant Aid for Provisionof relief supplies, food, water and better sanitation to internally displaced persons in the DRC(7.90 million yen) The total amount of the Japanese ODA to the DRC is quite limited, but thenumber of the projects are increasing year by year. (See Table-1)
Amount of DAC Countries' ODA Disbursements to the DRC (Net disbursements, US$ million)
No.1
No.2
No.3
Japan
2009
U.S.A.
U.K.
Belgium
65.7
238.69225.46177.02
2010
Belgium
Netherlands
Spain
80.0
648.80422.16306.202011
U.S.A.
FranceItaly
186.74
1,293.20
1,131.04
576.89Source http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/oda/data/pdfs/congo_dem_rep.pdf
3. Model farms in the DRC
3.1 Target area and thematic issues
The project sites will be implemented in the surrounding regions of the University ofKinshasa including:UNIKIN Experimental Farm (500ha): N’Djili, Kinshasa Metropolitan Area.

Experimental Lab for Fundamental Sciences: Mont Amba, UNIKIN.

The joint research team members have been selected by both Deans of the Faculties of Science& Agronomy at UNIKIN according to the following 14 thematic, chosen by the tentative
consensus after open discussion:(14 thematic issues proposed by UNIKIN)
Soil fertility and soil biology, conservation and conditioning of agricultural products,
characterization of the agricultural spaces and ecosystems, monitoring of the agricultural
spaces and ecosystems, organizing of agricultural spaces and ecosystems, energy
production in farming environment, transformation and enhancement of agriculturalproducts, fish production, animal production, domestication of wild animals, domesticationof wild food plants, domestication of mushrooms, crop production, apiculture.
We can classify these issues into four, (i) Soil science, (ii) Monitoring of the agriculture system,(iii) Production of Fish and Animals, (vi) Unidentified agricultural products.

It is not easy tocover all the items by our joint research team. But we are planning to invite some potential
Japanese companies and local governments.
3.2 Matching between thematic issues and Japanese resources
Nowadays, many Japanese companies and local governments have a strong interest on theglobalization of their economic activities. For the soil science, Ritsumeikan University canwork with the UNIKIN. For the monitoring, it should include the value chain and the5logistics issues. That can be covered by the Japanese private companies with ICT. For fish
and wild animal, some Japanese local governments have similar activities to promote localeconomy. Shiga prefecture has the biggest lake in Japan, Lake Biwa and has many local
government to promote freshwater fishing. For unidentified agricultural products, somecosmetic companies have a strong interests.
3.3 Findings from the preliminary surveys
Thanks to the TICAD V in 2013 and a new Japanese ODA policy to promote globalization of
the Japanese company, university and local government, we had a good response from thepotential Japanese stake holders with the joint project in the DRC. DRC’s Human Development
Index (HDI)of187

valueforcountriesand2012

was0.304, positioning

thecountryat186outterritories in the world. However, we found the attractive

uniqueness of the present agricultural conditions of the DRC. They have limited experiences inwhat we call green revolution, they do not use chemical fertilizers and chemists. Africa can be
the big market in the future and the long civil war in the DRC brought food crisis, but at thesame time, it kept traditional organic farming system very well. To promote safety agriculture inJapan, collaboration between the DRC and Japan can innovate some new systems for safety
agriculture.
4. Conclusions and Remaining Issues
The food shortage in the DRC is the one of the biggest problem in Africa. Without the stablesupply of the food, we are unable to have an economic progress in the DRC. The transportation
costs of the foods are quite high and it reduces the impact of the aid effectiveness. The
motivation of the joint research was not same between the DRC and Japanese stakeholders.
However, we identified mutual merits to work jointly for the promotion of the food security andsafety on the both countries. All the donors are trying to introduce new sophisticatedtechnologies to improve the production of the foods. However, we identified a simple systemwith necessary human trainings can trigger private companies, local governments andcommunity involvements. .
Selected references and useful web sites[1] Panasonic USA, Eco-Conscious Initiatives
http://www.panasonic.com/business-solutions/green-solutions.asp[2] Kurokabe Project, Shiga prefecture, Japan (In Japanese)
http://www.furusato-zaidan.or.jp/machinaka/project/casestudies/shiga01.html[3] Moku-moku farm, Nara prefecture, Japan (In Japanese) http://www.moku-moku.com/[4] Wago farm, Chiba prefecture, Japan (In Japanese) http://www.wagoen.com/main.html[5] WWF position statement: CONGO Basin Forests, May 2011
http://d2ouvy59p0dg6k.cloudfront.net/downloads/2011_05_25__final_wwf_congo_basin_positio
n_statement.pdf

6