I am certified farmer. It's been a few years since I got it. What I remember was the process was pretty painful. Painful meaning interview and lots of paperwork. We had to also make a business plan and this business plan had to achieve a preset income.Wolfsong013 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 28, 2021 3:25 pmHello everyone! Weather is warming up, and its been busy work ammending the soil for my new hatake.
I was wondering if anyone went through the steps to become an actual certified farmer?
I was hoping to buy another hatake and I heard that there are lots of subsidies avalible for farmers.
What is step one? I sold at my local michi no eki before, and I just had to certify that my goods were local goods to to area to sell there, and entered some kind of insurance scheme for my small farm. Since I moved, it seems like that kind of program doesn't exist, but I would like to expand and sell more than I have before.
I'm hoping to be a farmer, but more like a hobbiest farmer, since I still have my part-time day job.
Additionally, I was wondering what websites you use to find small workable land (for buying and/or renting). I went through old posts from before, but several of the websites seem like they havent been updated for quite some time.
We got all our advice from the town office. So as a first step that would be the best place to start. Once approved you have acess to lots of subsidies and no interest loans. So doing it can be well worth it.
As for finding land, the best way is word of mouth. If you know where you want your hatake, see if you know someone in that area and see if they can start asking around. Great if that someone is an elder person who knows the current owners whereabouts. A lot of unused farmland is now owned by the children or grandchildren that no longer live in the area. This is how we found our current land and home.
Good luck! And one more piece of advice, not sure if this good advice or not but here goes. Why don't you go all in? You said your going to do a part-time job and part-time farmer. Why not full time farmer? First make sure you make a really good business plan and get help from your prefectural experts to do this. You might be surprised how successful you can be and if you fail, which you probably won't, you can always then go back to your part-time job.