During his visit, Mr. Legg met with representatives of MAFF and the Environment Agency to discuss environmental and agricultural policies. Some indicators are in advanced stages, while others have shown potential unsuitability for use in collecting data or quantification in common scales. The utilization of AEIs is an issue that must be addressed in future.
Agriculture has a positive and a negative impact on the environment.
An appropriate method must be determined for quantitatively analyzing the impact of trade liberalization on the environment. Mr. Legg also visited a number of rural areas in Japan to investigate the multiple functions of paddy and upland field agriculture. His first stop was Koshigaya, in Saitama Prefecture, where he visited set-aside paddy fields in where cosmos have been planted with financial assistance from the city government to prevent flooding and provide an attractive landscape. He subsequently visited paddy and upland fields in the Tokigawa Basin and the city of Numata, where researchers have been working to develop systems for evaluating rural landscapes based on analysis of the preferences of local residents. He also visited experimental fields operated by agricultural research institutes in Saitama Prefecture, where he heard from researchers about their work on measuring the water purification function in paddy fields.