More than half of the farmers affected by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region remain unable to resume work, the government said in its fiscal 2011 white paper for agriculture released Tuesday.
With only about 40 percent of farmers who suffered tsunami damage having replanted, restoring the industry in the disaster-hit area continues to be the government's agricultural policy priority, the annual report said.
The government estimated the total damages to the agricultural, forestry and fishery industries at ¥2.43 trillion.
Exports from the nation's farms have so far failed to recover because of the ongoing Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant disaster, from which radioactive contaminants were spewed over a wide swath of the region, the report said.
The annual paper also called for boosting the consumption of rice to push up the country's food self-sufficiency rate to the government's goal of 50 percent.
According to the latest available government data, released last year, the country's food self sufficiency rate was 39 percent on a supplied calories basis in fiscal 2010, which ended in March 2011, down from 40 percent in fiscal 2009 and 41 percent in fiscal 2008.
With regard to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement, the report briefly mentioned Japan's ongoing talks to take part in negotiations for the framework, but did not touch on the implications of removing tariffs on agricultural imports as demanded by the countries involved in the negotiations.