2.1 Asia

Many countries in East and Southeast Asia, e.g., the Republic of Korea and Thailand, have been working to diversify their agricultural output since the end of the Green Revolution. As one of several projects designed to support that drive, Japan implemented the Maize Quality Improvement Research Center Project (project-type technical cooperation, 1989-1992) in Thailand, and in recent years has supplied financing to farmers as a means of spurring community development and creating more opportunities for employment. In Indochina (Viet Nam, Laos, and Cambodia), Japanese projects have been implemented to help build irrigation facilities and other elements of agricultural infrastructure and to test and disseminate improved crop strains and farm techniques, e.g., the Grant Aid Project for Improvement of the Facilities and Equipment of the Faculty of Agriculture, Can Tho University in 1994. China currently faces the challenge of expanding food output to support its large population. Japanese assistance to China has been guided by the priorities of improved farm productivity and projects capable of helping alleviate poverty in the country's inland provinces. In South Asia, a region where conditions of distressing poverty still persist, Japan has provided assistance for programs of poverty alleviation led by improvements in food self-sufficiency. Given its sheer diversity, Asia will continue to require aid that reflects the needs and conditions of each recipient country.

2.2 Africa (sub-Saharan Africa)

Low-income countries account for the majority (38 out of 47) in this region. Many of these countries are suffering economic stagnation from the slump in agriculture which has accompanied repeated droughts, political destabilization, land despoliation and encroaching desertification due to population growth. Since a majority of Africans rely heavily on agriculture and other primary industrial activities for their livelihood, agricultural development and stability have become crucial to the task of maintaining and improving their standards of living.

Japan has provided aid for the development of basic agricultural infrastructure and the dissemination of improved farming technology. Examples include the Medium-scale Irrigated Agriculture Promotion Project in Masvingo Province in Zimbabwe (for phases 1-5, 1989-1994), and the Kilimanjaro Agricultural Training Center Project in Tanzania (project-type technical cooperation, 1994-2002).

The Tokyo Agenda for Action adopted by TICAD II (October 1998) encourages the goals of improved farm productivity, broader access to food and nutrition, and the promotion of environmentally sustainable methods of production. Undertakings have been launched to help translate those goals into reality through various projects utilizing appropriate technologies which do not damage traditional farming methods, harnessing small-scale irrigation, and development of organized transportation systems to enable market access.

2.3 Latin America

Agriculture in Latin America has taken on a dual structure, characterized by the coexistence of both small family farms and giant agribusiness operations. In some areas, however, unfair systems of land ownership have aggravated inequalities between the wealthy and the poor. This region is currently confronted by two major issues: a dependence on the export of agricultural commodities to an increasingly unstable international market, and an uptrend in imports of food. Considering the role that Japanese immigrants and their descendants have played in promoting the advancement of agriculture in this region, Japan has furnished assistance for the transfer and development of farm technologies and for the improvement of living standards for small farmers, e.g., the Japan-Brazil Cooperation Program for Agricultural Development of Cerrado Region. In the future, it will be necessary to provide aid that is highly tailored to the circumstances of each country to overcome the difficulties described above.

2.1 Comprehensive Development

Many areas in need of agricultural development typically have levels of income that seem low compared to the national average for the country in which they are located. For this reason, pursuing aid in the agricultural and food fields will call for efforts to alleviate rural poverty, with attention to the goals of remedying regional inequalities and improving citizen standards of living. Accordingly, it will be vital to foster initiatives by rural farmers and citizens as both beneficiaries and agents of the development process, and to pursue strategies of comprehensive rural development that contribute to improved business cycles by fully developing and harnessing all available agricultural resources.

2.2 Participatory Development

Aid driven by a participatory development perspective will be crucial to the implementation of agricultural development programs that accurately reflect the needs of farmers and other citizens. Aid programs accordingly should be implemented in tandem with steps to create a setting that allows rural farmers and citizens to participate and demonstrate their skills at all stages of the aid process, from project discovery and formulation to implementation and evaluation. Japan to date has implemented a variety of undertakings with a participatory development focus, including the Integrated Agricultural and Rural Development Project in southeast Sulawesi Province Indonesia (project-type technical cooperation, 1991-1998) and the Rural Development Project in the Region South of Pilar in Paraguay (project-type technical cooperation, 1994-2001). Nonetheless, it will face the necessity of strengthening this focus in the years ahead.

3.1 The Formulation of Projects for Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development

The efficient utilization of agricultural resources and efforts to avert environmental deterioration will be crucial to the pursuit and achievement of sustainable forms of agricultural and rural development. Japan will accordingly find it necessary to assist in the formulation of projects for improved land utilization and soil conservation, better water management for rainwater, as well as groundwater irrigation-based farming, and the protection of biodiversity. Aid will also be required for the establishment of environmentally balanced and sustainable forms of agriculture.

Japan has already implemented several projects in the interest of exploring the potential for sustainable forms of agriculture based on management practices (in land utilization, water management, etc.) that combine traditional as well as modern agricultural concepts. The Small-Scale Irrigated Agriculture Promotion Project in the Republic of Ghana (project-type technical cooperation, 1997-2002) is one such example. Another is the Study for the Plan to Combat Desertification in Tillabery Department in the Republic of Niger (development survey, 1997-1999), which has the goal of fostering improved living standards and sustainable forms of crop and livestock agriculture and forestry while combating desertification. Providing assistance of this kind will retain its importance for years to come.

3.2 Information Systems for Agricultural Resource Management

The quest for sustainable agriculture will also demand accurate assessments of resource availability and environmental impact. However, many developing countries do not yet have the statistical frameworks required for the acquisition of reliable data. Two additional problems have been cited as bottlenecks to effective agricultural resource management: a poor awareness of natural resource depletion on the one hand, and a lack of the expertise and infrastructure required for resource management on the other. Following environmentally sound strategies of food security also will demand the creation of information systems that are capable of providing access to information on climate, topsoil conditions, and other data of value to resource management. Many developing countries have demonstrated an intense need for such aid.

3.3 Countermeasures against Desertification

Desertification has become an increasingly serious problem particularly in Africa, where it has been aggravated by population growth and the resultant conversion of forested areas into farmland, shifting cultivation, and overlogging for fuel and other purposes. To address this issue, Japan has sent teams of JOCVs to Tanzania, Senegal, and other countries. Those teams have been engaged in work to disseminate technologies for the protection of forest resources, and in the Green Promotion Aid Projects, which are designed to foster forms of rural development tailored to the needs of local residents.

3.4 The Development of Systems for Sustainable Agriculture

Rainwater-based agriculture accounts for 80 percent of all land area under food crop cultivation and for 60 percent of total crop output. However, land resource depletion and environmental degradation due to farmland overdevelopment have added to the difficulty of fertilizing and cultivating the rainwater-based agricultural districts where small-scale farming operations tend to predominate. However, methods of improving topsoil quality on the basis of cultivation strategies that employ crop rotation with grains and legumes deserve attention as an alternative approach. Japan and other countries have been working under the aegis of the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) to study and develop sustainable agricultural systems.

Although requests for assistance with pilot farm projects have been multiplying in recent years, it will remain important to devote attention to the position and views of the farmers who will be involved in the actual utilization of transferred farm technologies.

4.1 Region-Wide Approach for Cooperation

Region-wide rural development projects that target multiple countries with similar characteristics in a given region are an effective way of boosting the efficiency of aid. Japan has provided assistance of this kind for South-South cooperation by helping pivotal countries to utilize the human and technological resources acquired through Japanese ODA and then transfer the benefits to neighboring countries. Increasing rice production in West Africa is one potential model undertaking of this kind now under study that will be aimed at satisfying the goals of the Tokyo Agenda for Action. In particular, it has been designed to develop techniques for rice paddy culture adapted to local natural and social conditions in West Africa, a region with limited experience in the paddy-based cultivation of rice. Additionally, it will seek to promote the spread of rice cultivation through pilot projects on model paddy tracts.

4.2 Aid Packages that Combine Multiple Types of Assistance as an Organic Whole

Once the principal objectives of agricultural aid have been clarified, aid packages that combine different types of assistance as an organic whole together will conceivably be an effective approach at every stage of the process, from project discovery and formulation to implementation and follow-up. Japan has applied an approach of this kind in Indonesia, through its Umbrella Cooperation (FY1981-1990, FY1995-2000 [phases 1-3] comprising technical cooperation [development surveys, project-type technical cooperation, expert assignments, training programs] and financial assistance [grants and loans]), and would find it worthwhile to follow a similar strategy in other developing regions.

BOX 6 Comprehensive Agricultural Cooperation: Umbrella Cooperation for Indonesia