## (3) Initiatives of Measures to Conserve and Improve Land, Water and Environment

- It is important to promote thorough understanding, on the side of the Japanese people, of the resources, including farmland and agricultural water, which are regarded as assets shared by the entire nation, and the agricultural activities conducted by using such resources, and improve and conserve the quality of agricultural environment into the future. For this purpose, we introduced “Measures to Conserve and Improve Land, Water and Environment in FY2007.

• The introduction of such programs has been promoted as pilot projects in some districts. An increasing number of sectors, including farmers, agricultural organizations, neighborhood community associations and schools, have been encouraged to participate in these programs. In this manner, the range of activities for promoting conservation of local environments has been expanding.

• Their full-scale introduction is expected to contribute to development of such programs as effective local collaborative programs and promotion of a wider range of activities for revitalization, supported by a large variety of participants.

State of Participation of Various Sectors in the Programs for Promoting Preservation of Local Resources

Source: “Experimental Project for Supporting the Activities for Promotion of Conservation and Improvement of Land, Water and Environment” (MAFF, 2006)

Notes: 1) The data were collected from 568 districts around Japan where the system for implementation of joint activities was experimentally introduced. The relationship between the number of the sectors other than agricultural sectors that participated in the activities for the first time in FY2006 and the increase in the activities for promoting conservation of local environments compared with the data obtained in FY2005 was shown in the figure.

Increase in Participating Sectors and Changes of Contents of Activities

☐ Increase by more than 4 items

☐ Increase by 2-3 items

☐ Increase by 1 item

☐ Maintaining the current condition

2) The activities included planting in the gardens of facilities for creation of beautiful landscape, regular patrol, maintenance and cleaning of facilities, collecting the data on the living conditions of organisms, and monitoring of water quality.

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The rural community in the paddy field area of Aira-cho, Kagoshima Pref., faces the problems of aging and acceleration of mixed-living of farm and nonfarm households. Furthermore, the rich natural environment, which had been conserved before around 1965, was destroyed, as demonstrated by the disappearance of fireflies in summer. The group of the neighborhood community association, consisting of middle-aged and young farmers and local residents in the community, established a new organization in 2000 to recover as much as possible of the unspoiled nature. The organization is involved in joint programs with the neighborhood community association, such as the program for preservation of farmland, agricultural

water canals and farm roads. The organization is divided into small groups to promote various local activities: 1) a group involved in the program for conservation of fireflies (firefly group), 2) a group involved in astragalus cultivation in the idle farmland for recovery of beautiful landscape and soil fertility (astragalus group), 3) a group involved in water decontamination using bamboo charcoal, a product produced from local bamboo (bamboo charcoal group and pond group), 4) a group involved in growing rice without using agricultural chemicals (rice growing group). In the early spring when astragalus flowers are in full bloom, the group holds an event of walking in the natural environment to promote the exchange between local residents and visitors. In the future, these groups will expand their ranges of activity to reduce fallow fields and revitalize the local community. They expect that their efforts may get young people interested in agriculture and that more young people will be engaged in farming.

The members of the rural community make efforts to preserve this irrigation canal.