When Burning Soil Starts Breathing Biomass and Farmland Turns into Energy (December 2008)

When Burning Soil Starts Breathing Biomass and Farmland Turns into Energy (December 2008)
Policies aimed at improving domestic energy self-sufficiency by utilizing farmland not only for food production but also as a biomass resource attracted attention in the late 2000s. Behind this was the reality that the production base of domestic agriculture had been weakened by the increase in abandoned farmland due to the long-standing policy of reducing rice acreage, the fragmentation of farmland, and the lack of bearers of farmland. At the same time, the global supply and demand of grains was becoming unstable and the risk of price fluctuations was increasing, and society was becoming increasingly aware that its security in terms of both food and energy would be shaken if it remained dependent on imports. Under these circumstances, the concept of converting unused farmland into energy crops and circulating them within the region as bioethanol and biogas was expected to both diversify farmers' income and rebuild the local economy. The three pillars of the policy are: effic
iency improvement through farmland accumulation, creation of local distributed energy, and integration of agriculture and environmental technology. Biomass, in particular, has attracted much attention as a concept that supports both the control of the increase in CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and the recycling of resources, and attempts have been made to promote its use in step with the national strategy for biomass utilization and support for research and development. However, there are many issues to be addressed, such as crop selection, refining costs, distribution systems, and balance with environmental conservation, and not everything has progressed smoothly. Nevertheless, the perspective of rethinking farmland as a "production site for renewable energy" posed new questions to society. The question is to what extent advances in environmental technology and changes in agricultural policy can function to revitalize rural areas and strengthen the nation's infrastructure,
a theme that continues to this day.