Lack of Successors for Tea Farmers
Decrease in Tea Farmers
| Shizuoka | Kagoshima | Mie | Kyoto | Fukuoka | Miyazaki | Kumamoto | Nationwide | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H12 | 24,019 | 4,309 | 4,598 | 1,330 | 2,217 | 820 | 1,277 | 53,687 |
| H17 | 17,731 | 3,072 | 2,294 | 1,035 | 1,629 | 642 | 973 | 37,617 |
| H22 | 13,933 | 2,216 | 1,455 | 825 | 1,385 | 513 | 695 | 28,116 |
| H27 | 9,617 | 1,744 | 967 | 653 | 980 | 399 | 529 | 20,114 |
First of all, the number of tea farmers in Japan decreased by about 34,000 from 2000 to 2015, from about 54,000 in 2000 to 20,000 in 2015.
The reason for the decrease in the number of tea farmers is that the unit price of tea sold at the market is very low and does not match the cost of tea production, making it difficult for tea farmers to make a profit.
In addition, new tea farmers often start at a halfway, so there are fewer people willing to continue as tea farmers because of the low profit margins from subsidies. In addition, small farmers are gradually disappearing and only large farmers are remaining.
Reasons for the Lack of Successors for The Farmers
Possible reasons for the serious lack of successors for tea farmers include
the fact that young people are no longer interested in the work of tea farmers.
This coul be due to the recent development of machines and the lack of attention
paid to tea farmers as other jobs have increased, or that the work of
tea farmers is often physical labor that places a heavy burden on the body.
Also, the number of new tea farmers is decreasing because it is very difficult
to start a new tea farming business.
Furthermore, the age range of tea farmers is quite imbalanced, with 3.6%
aged 15-39, 10.7% aged 40-59, 29% aged 60-69, 39.1% aged 70-79, and 17.6%
aged 80 or older. The average age is only increasing every year.
How to Solve the Lack of Successors
As a solution to the lack of successors, local people are forming groups to farm, or even incorporating their farming activities into an organization, like a company.
Another possible solution to the lack of successors would be to collaborate
with characters popular with children and conduct other activities that
would interest young people.
Who? are also considering promoting DX (digital transformation), in which
human workers are assisted by machines and AI, and proposing cultivation
plans that reduce the number of fertilizer and pesticide applications. This is an effort that wonllow even elderly farmers to easily manage cultivation.