Japan's agriculture ministry unveiled a budget proposal which would allocate more funding to expand the country's food self-sufficiency rates, offset rising energy costs and expand its feed grain sources on Wednesday (August 28, 2008)

A significant change in the budget request would be the enlargement of funds slated to raise the country's food self-sufficiency rates. Funds to be allocated for the purpose would rise 60 percent to JPY 302.5 billion yen (US$2.77 billion ).

The funds would be sought under the fiscal 2009 state budget, which begins next April.

Total general-account budget request from the agricultural ministry for the year now stands at close to JPY 3 trillion (US$27.4 billion) up 13.6 percent from the 2007's proposed budget.

Of this, JPY 40.4 billion (US$369.1 million) would be requested to support production of rice for use in rice flour or animal feed.

The ministry hopes to secure 147.7 billion yen (US$1.35 billion), almost unchanged from fiscal 2008, to help farmers diversify away from rice to grow other crops and would spend JPY 23 billion (US$210 million) on subsidies to help bring abandoned farmland back into cultivation.

To help farmers gain more efficient use of paddy and other fields, the ministry would provide JPY 50,000 (US$457.1 ) for every 10 acres used for production of rice for flour or feed, and JPY 35,000 (US$320.0 ) for wheat or soy production.

These measures would help increase the country's food self-sufficiency rate by 0.5 to 1.0 percentage point from 40 percent in fiscal 2007 that ended in last March.

The ministry is also helping farmers cope with higher energy and other costs by doubling its request for such funds to US$1.28 billion.

The ministry also hopes to launch a programme to finance half of farmers' increased costs for fuels and fertilizers on the condition that they reduced their use.