Climate Change Adaptation Plan of Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

This Climate Change Adaptation Plan of Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) is a national-wise multi-sectoral policy document. The Plan outlines projected impacts caused by climate change on agriculture, forestry and fisheries, including mountain and fishing villages in Japan, and proposes the adaption measures for every field respectively for the next ten years. MAFF will strongly promote impact assessment, technological development, and various other measures through cooperation between the state and local regions.
The Plan supports helping eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. MAFF will build a system forecasting world food supply and demand in the long term, which applies the most suitable forecast model including economic growth and population increases. For the purpose of developing strategies toward securing a stable food supply in the midterm, in consideration of climate change impacts and in light of social/economic trend including economic growth and the trend of policies of each country, MAFF will continuously conduct mid-term forecasts concerning world food supply and demand. MAFF will also analyze the causes of impacts on stable food supply in Japan. Such information will be continuously and widely provided.
The Plan promotes appropriate conservation and management of national forests, establishing “Protected Forests,” which protect a primary forest ecosystem and the growth and habitat of rare wildlife species, as well as “Green Corridors,” which serve as migratory pathways for wildlife; precisely grasping the situation through continuous monitoring surveys, etc.; and aiming to form the forest ecosystem network together with mountain streams.
The Plan seeks to enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems. The measures proposed in the Plan include those to secure food and feed safety (agricultural products including cereal grain and cereal products, and feeds) by developing technologies to reduce contamination and extend such measures to producers of agricultural products and feeds. Mycotoxin contamination reduction measures will be regularly verified and reviewed in consideration of new knowledge. In light of future impact assessments, MAFF will work on developing new adaptive varieties and cultivation management technologies or will conduct basic research. Furthermore, for the purpose of mitigating forest pest damage, while developing varieties highly resistant to the pine wood nematode, etc., MAFF will promote developing an effective technique to judge the resistance of varieties.
By systematically promoting improvement of facilities contributing to disaster prevention, MAFF will continuously prepare for farmland flooding and devastating mountain disasters from torrential rain, and increasing risks of high tides by sea-level rise. For the purpose of mitigating a decline in the production volume and quality of agricultural products due to rising temperatures, MAFF will promote the research and development of adaptive technologies and breeds coping with climate change, switchover of breeds and items, the dissemination of adaptive technologies, etc. Moreover, MAFF will endeavor to grasp impacts on living aquatic resources due to marine environment changes, etc., by continuing marine environment studies at spawning areas and at the major fishing grounds of various living aquatic resources. The precision of an oceanic condition forecast model in operation will be improved by upgrading the method that assimilates various observational data obtained from research vessels and satellites, etc.