Coastal farmland damaged by the March 11 tsunami will be restored within three years, according to a road map endorsed by the government's reconstruction headquarters on Aug. 26.
Coastal farmland damaged by the March 11 tsunami will be restored within three years, according to a road map endorsed by the government's reconstruction headquarters on Aug. 26.
The document, which sets out detailed plans for the reconstruction following the Great East Japan Earthquake, also commits the government to ensuring that fishing ports devastated in the disaster can serve as production and distribution centers by the end of fiscal 2013.
The road map says that initial emergency measures to enable the restoration of farm facilities in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures severely damaged by the March 11 tsunami "should mostly be completed by mid-September." But the full resumption of farming could take up to three years in some areas, with some agricultural facilities not expected to be fully operational for five years.
Desalination will be finished by the end of fiscal 2011 on about 6,400 hectares of farmland with relatively modest sludge deposits. That will allow farming to resume in fiscal 2012, according to the government road map.
A further 5,400 hectares of farmlands with deep sludge deposits will take until the end of fiscal 2012 to clear of sludge and to desalinate. In those areas, farming will not be resumed until fiscal 2013.
About 2,100 hectares of farmland within a 20-kilometer radius of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant are not covered by the program.
A total of 319 fishing ports in seven prefectures, ranging from Hokkaido to Chiba, were damaged by the March 11 disaster. Those ports that serve as production and distribution hubs will be identified by the government and "best efforts will be made to restore them by the end of fiscal 2013," the plan says.
The government aims to restore half of oyster and scallop farms owned by businesses that wish to continue operations by the end of fiscal 2011 and says that 30 percent of large, stationary fishing nets owned by operational businesses will be restored by the end of September. Both sectors should be fully restored by the end of fiscal 2012.