Agriculture

The food self-sufficiency ratio in Japan based on caloric supply was 39 % in 2013, which is the lowest level among major developed countries. To achieve sustainable food supply in the future, state-of-the-art technologies should be combined to stabilize food production, increase productivity per resource, and ensure greater safety. This should be done even if it increases energy consumption. In a scenario of rising prices of fossil fuels, however, energy cost is one of the greatest risks for farmers. In addition to energy saving, energy production based on agricultural residue has the potential to revitalize agriculture. In this chapter, we review the current status of food production and energy consumption of agriculture. Based on this review, we suggest approaches to promote energy saving and production within agriculture that would stabilize and improve profitability for farmers. Energy saving would be effective and feasible in the field of protected horticulture by substituting waste heat and CO₂ from other industries and renewable resources for fossil fuels used in temperature control and CO₂ fertilization. To promote energy production by agriculture, a change of supply-chain management of resources from farmland is required for such a wide and thin distribution of resources. If agriculture can change to a more profitable and attractive business, new entries into agriculture would increase and food production would stabilize.