Strategy MeaDRI launched in Japan
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) of Japan launched the Strategy MeaDRI, a strategy for a sustainable food system, on 12 May 2021.
We are seeing a global commitment towards introducing sustainability initiatives into the agricultural production system, such as the "Farm to Fork" strategy in EU, and "Agriculture Innovation Agenda" in US. The introduction of Strategy MeaDRI by MAFF sees Japan joining this movement.
In this strategy, MAFF outlines several KPIs to achieve by 2050 including;
- 50% reduction in risk-weighted use of chemical pesticides by dissemination of the Integrated Pest Management and newly-developed alternatives
- 30% reduction in chemical fertilizer use
- Increase in organic farming to 1Mha (equivalent to 25% of farmland)
There are some challenges facing Strategy MeaDRI with key players in the Japanese agricultural industry questioning the effectiveness of the KPIs. One of the objectives, for instance, is to reduce risk in agricultural production systems, and reduction of the usage of certain high risk products is one of the KPIs. However, statistics indicate that the risks from pesticides for operators & consumers as well as the living organisms in aquatic and in terrestrial systems are quite low. People are therefore questioning whether the strategy is truly based on scientific discussion - to address these concerns, JCPA (Japan Crop Protection Association) have organized several webinars to discuss the issues.
To learn more, and to find out how EAS Group can support you in meeting the Strategy MeaDRI objectives, please contact Osamu Yoshida
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