Discussion on land for farming

Finding land, working a small plot or anything else countryside related
Flockaducks
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Re: Discussion on land for farming

Post by Flockaducks »

Great info Paradoxbox im googling Matsuoka Mayu as i type!
yea to be honest i hadnt even considered the impact suzumebachi might have but it makes sense! i might have to look into that and see what i find!
i have been looking at an area that has a few organic farms so i take a look around and see if i can locate some hives in the future around there to cut down on the chemical loads!

I love the fact your touching on ecotourism as well, thats another thing im keen on to be honest and ive noticed a fair few people buying up old places and renovating them for Air BNB places id love to incorporate that into something aswell.

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gonbechan
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Re: Discussion on land for farming

Post by gonbechan »

Japanese honeybees have many advantages over European honeybees.

Defence against giant hornets.
Immunity to varroa mite.
Resistand to foulbrood and chalkbrood.
Collect nectar from diverse flowers all year round. (European honeybees usually stick to one flower species at a time)
Active in lower temps than European honeybee which stops flying around when temps drop below 10C.

Of course you get less honey and can only harvest once a year, but Japanese honeybee makes a much more interesting tasting honey due to collecting pollen from many many sources at once.

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: Discussion on land for farming

Post by Zasso Nouka »

This is not really about land for farming but something new farmers might want to consider.

According to the agricultural laws you are not allowed to call your vegetables organic unless you have a JAS certificate. Obtaining a JAS certificate can be a lengthy and very very expensive process, it seems to be mostly aimed at large corporate farms rather than more modest sized smallholdings. Although technically food produced under this system is in name organic (as it is produced without artificial pesticides) it probably isn't what most of us would consider a viable organic system. For instance the large farms completely sterilise the soil with steam injectors between crops which would be the direct opposite of trying to build up a diverse eco system within your soil. The JAS organic system also allows the use of pesticides when there isn't actually a crop being grown, so that technically a crop is grown without pesticide but the area may have been dowsed just before one was planted. Because the soil is essentially sterilised between each crop there is no encouragement to use green manures or cover crops and heavy additions of 'organic' fertilisers are required. Really there is little difference between this and conventional farming and it certainly bears little resemblance to what most of us imagine when we think of an organic smallholding.

When considering a particular location for your land consider sales outlets. It may be great to have a beautiful plot of land surrounded by pristine mountains and forest far from the madding crowd but if you have to travel an hour or more each way to your nearest market is that viable ?

Michi no Eki can give a good day to day income if you have one located near a large population centre, I'm not talking about omiyage type mich no eki near onsen here but the ones that local folk use to buy their day to day vegetables. We have several within easy reach of us where farmers price their veg at or near supermarket prices so they are crowded every day of the week. Farmers can make a good return because you are selling direct to the consumer without any middlemen and are only paying a commission to the michi no eki (around 15 - 20%).

Auction markets can work if you are producing wholesale quantities of vegetables but obviously you will only be getting wholesale prices. Most cities in agricultural areas will have one if not two auction markets.

Restaurant sales can work but it can also be quite difficult finding chefs who can deal with unusual veg and they don't often buy in very large quantities. Also if you schedule regular harvesting and packing days each week they may not conform to your schedule and you then have to take time out from other planned jobs to fulfil an order. I'm not saying it can't work out but it can take time to get everyone singing from the same page. Upper class hotels can also work but I'd give the mid range ones a miss personally as they have menus created for them and don't diverge from that, you might make that work for you if you can grow what they want and you could be lucky to find a chef willing to experiment but if he moves on then suddenly you could loose your business.

Farmer's markets are well worth doing, meeting your customers and engaging with them is incredibly good for both you and them. Getting feedback on what they like is very useful in planning what to grow and it can inspire very good customer loyalty. Farmer's markets can also be very lucrative indeed and well worth the time it takes to prepare and attend them.

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Eric in Japan
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Re: Discussion on land for farming

Post by Eric in Japan »

Zasso Nouka wrote:According to the agricultural laws you are not allowed to call your vegetables organic unless you have a JAS certificate.
Would it be legal to put up a sign at your part of the michi no eki that said "No Pesticides used" or "Pesticide free since 2010" or something like that?
You are not labeling them as organic, but at the same time letting consumers know your growing practices.
"... so, the cucumbers said to the cabbage, `Lettuce Go.`"

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: Discussion on land for farming

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Eric in Japan wrote:Would it be legal to put up a sign at your part of the michi no eki that said "No Pesticides used" or "Pesticide free since 2010" or something like that?
You are not labeling them as organic, but at the same time letting consumers know your growing practices.
Unfortunately not, you are not allowed to say anything about how the vegetables were grown. You aren't even technically allowed to say "Grown in a natural manner without any artificial additives" or anything similar as that is seen to imply they are organic. The only way you can say anything is to get a JAS organic certificate. What you might say verbally to a customer at a Farmer's market isn't a matter of record and is a bit of a grey area if you follow me ;)

Another outlet to consider for selling vegetables are supermarkets, many have a section for local farmers and the customer flow through the day can be quite high and they are often open much longer hours than michi no eki so well worth considering. The commission you pay them varies highly so shop around before deciding where to sell.

Also there are distribution companies that will accept your produce at a local depot and then ship it to supermarkets in the larger cities. The commission they take can be as high as 35% but you can offset that against higher point of sale prices in the big cities.

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Re: Discussion on land for farming

Post by Flockaducks »

very interesting read Zasso

i didnt know about the michi no eki
although i think i may have been to one of the omiyage ones without realising what it was

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Re: Discussion on land for farming

Post by iamsen »

I've seen conbinis that sell local produce around the Tokyo-Saitama border so maybe that's another possible avenue?

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Re: Discussion on land for farming

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Flockaducks wrote:i didnt know about the michi no eki
although i think i may have been to one of the omiyage ones without realising what it was
Several of the larger farmers at our biggest michi no eki make between 6 - 10 million yen in sales on ordinary everyday vegetables.
iamsen wrote:I've seen conbinis that sell local produce around the Tokyo-Saitama border so maybe that's another possible avenue?
Great idea, shops are looking for ways to distinguish themselves from the competition and having a steady supply of good locally produced vegetables is a nice way for them to do that.

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Re: Discussion on land for farming

Post by paradoxbox »

ZN, how do oddball varieties do at Michi no Eki shops?

I have to admit I've never seen something like purple or white sweetcorn, or non-Japanese varieties of vegetables at my local michi no eki shops. We have 2 or 3 around my area and this area has a decent sized population so the shops have a decent customer base. One of them is also near the Oume Kaidou too which means it gets TONS of traffic from the people going out on drives to the mountains from Tokyo.

I haven't approached michi no eki about selling vegetables yet but I think I might give it a go if they'll accept foreign and / or unusual varieties.

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: Discussion on land for farming

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Depends on the clientèle,

Younger families tend to buy a wider variety of vegetables and be willing to try something new or offering some cooking guidelines on the packaging helps with selling as well but we also have good number of mature customers who are just as willing to try something unusual.

When trying a new vegetable we generally make quite a small seeding at first and then gradually increase the numbers seeded so that we can start off slow and slowly increase the volume for sale. That way customers can get used to trying something new without there being a glut on sale at first. Also we've noticed that it is better to introduce something new at the weekends when sales are higher rather than mid week. For really outré vegetables give them a try but in really small amounts, that way if they are not successful at selling you haven't wasted a lot of space or effort.

I'd suggest looking at different varieties of crops that people might be already familiar with. Take zucchini for instance, everyone grows the normal long green one but try the scallop ones, that way customers already know how to cook them but will probably try something that looks different from all the other zucchini and you can charge a premium price for them while everyone else is selling theirs for 80円 a zucchini.

Most michi no eki seem to welcome different vegetables as it offers them something to differentiate themselves from others. Many farmers seem to stick to what is shown on the seed packet so look to growing veggies outside of those ranges. Getting back to zucchini as an example, for us that means most of the other farmers at our michi no eki stop supplying them in July after the humidity of the rainy season has killed off their plants but we supply them right through to november when we have the market all to ourselves. We should be selling the first of our zucchini for this year at the weekend before any of the other farmers have theirs which will give us the chance to get a premium price until they all come on stream.

You can use double vinyl tunnels to extend your growing season and either germinate crops super early or have them after everyone else has finished, I made a topic here Growing Season Extension. It's pretty simple to set up and can give you a month or more head start in the spring and similar extension in the autumn.

Selling at two michi no eki with good customer bases (or one with a very large customer base) can give you a very liveable income. A well designed label identifying your produce goes a long way towards differentiating yourself from other growers and will help in forming a group of loyal customers who will seek out your produce.

Both Elliot Coleman & Jean-Martin Fortier have some good advice on marketing your produce in their books.

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