Countermeasures to eliminate deaf farm land Kagawa / Sanuki City Agricultural Committee - National Agricultural Newspaper

　In Sanuki City, 129 hectares, which are about 5 % of the total cultivated land area of 2376 hectares, are idle farmland due to aging and decrease in agriculture.With concerns about further increases, the City Agricultural Committee (Chairman Toshiyuki Matsubara) is working to understand idle farmland using drones and to solve local specialty products.

　The use of drones in the committee began in FY2018.The reason for the use was that in 2017, the city signed an agreement on cooperation in the event of a disaster with an NPO for the development of drone pilots.Currently, there are many drone pilots in the city to quickly grasp and restore the status of natural disasters in recent years.The committee has requested the city to introduce a drone in order to understand and investigate the current status of idle farmland, which is difficult for people to enter due to the disappearance of the approach route in mountainous areas and others.It began to move towards the use of agricultural land usage surveys.

The chairman himself obtains his qualification

　Chairman Matsubara first participated in the operation workshop conducted by the corporation to acquire drone control skills.The committee has been in two places in the city to date since 2018..7 Hectares are investigating.In the survey, the agricultural committee members and agricultural land use optimization promotion committee members will see the video sent from the drone and confirm the current situation.In the past, a place that took about 1 hour to look around was completed in about 15 minutes.It led to the efficiency of work and ensuring safety.Currently, in addition to Chairman Matsubara, another person has obtained a qualification, and if there is a request from the agricultural committee or promotion committee member, he is borrowing and conducting a drone managed by the city and conducting a survey.

　In addition to grasping such idle farmland, we are also working on eliminating idle farmland utilizing Kogiku. Kougiku is a perennial perennial plant, which is one of the Chinese tea, and is said to have the effect of taking it before meals to reduce blood sugar levels after meals. The feature is that it has a fragrance and a subtle sweetness. Since 2020, the committee has been working on cultivation of Kougiku, aiming to develop a new city special product using idle farmland. First, we visited Obama City, Fukui Prefecture, which is cultivating. Agricultural committee members and promotion committees are working on cultivation proficiency and processing research. Kougiku cultivation is not hard -working compared to vegetables, and even the elderly can work on it. The committee hopes that it will be a measure against narrow idle farmland not only in the mountainous area but also in the plains. We also believe that it is effective from the viewpoint of beautiful landscape creation. Currently, we are testing product development, such as making the picked Kogiku flowers into fine powder and making tea. For full -scale production and sales, we plan to continue research on cultivation and processing.