This document proposes measures to restore agriculture and food sectors in areas affected by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan. It recommends both immediate and long-term measures. Immediate measures include damage assessments, establishing restoration committees, and providing relief. Long-term measures involve strengthening institutions, capacity, and policies to support food production and distribution. Specific recommendations include redeploying agriculture in areas with different radiation and salinity levels, strengthening extension services and communities' disaster preparedness, and integrating radiation safety standards and monitoring into the food system. The goal is to safely restart agriculture and ensure a stable food supply in the affected regions.

1. Fitting the Radiation Safety Piece into the Jigsaw Puzzle : Restoring Agriculture and Food Sector Aftermath the Great Tohoku and Fukushima Disasters A Thought Notes for Comments SVRK Prabhakar Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Hayama, Japan August 2011 Suggested citation: Prabhakar S.V.R.K. 2011. Fitting the Radiation Safety Piece into the Jigsaw Puzzle : Restoring Agriculture and Food Sector Aftermath the Great Tohoku and Fukushima Disasters. Presented to the Disaster Management Project Team, 25 August 2011, Hayama, Japan 1

2. Important questions being asked Agriculture & food specific What measures are required to kick-start the agriculture and food sector in the affected areas? How to ensure safe agriculture and food supply from and within these regions? From emergency management perspective: To what extent the civil and nuclear safety authorities are connected at the local level (or how best they can be strengthened)? What is the level of radiation safety preparedness in prefectures with nuclear power plants? [What level of changes happened in these prefectures before and after the Fukushima?] From the cognitive and behavioral perspective: How people perceive and rate different aspects of responses by various agencies aftermath of Tohoku and Fukushima and what these perceptions mean for the systems in question? 2

3. Broad Category of Measures Needed: Immediate and Long-term Immediate measures: Initiate damage assessment and decision support systems Establish Agricultural and Food Restoration Committees at all levels Make available information on immediate ‘deployability’ of agriculture in the affected areas (how-soon, how-far, how many, and how farmers can get to their normal lives) Enhanced insurance payouts and other relief measures Long-term measures: Strengthening Institutional systems (and farmer support systems) Strengthening capacity across the spectrum of stakeholders involved in food production and distribution chain Introduction of policies to enable the above 3

4. Initiate Damage Assessment and Decision Support Systems Impacts of the triple-disaster: Salinization of vast agricultural land along the Northeast coast of Japan Radiation contamination in areas near Fukushima nuclear power plant Damage to irrigation and other related agricultural infrastructure due to the earthquake and tsunami G C D A B E F 4

5. Measures for Damage Assessment for DSS Initiate measures to identify and quantify areas and impacts related to radiation, salinization and physical damage (this step spans from short to medium term but should be initiated at early stages of disaster management). Damage assessment teams at village and city levels. Self-assessment forms wherever possible and through websites if the nature of damage allow. Remote sensing for estimating salinity/Systems to collect soil samples for checking radiation and salinity levels. Livelihood and skill mapping: to identify means of livelihood diversification for farmers who cannot farm sooner (or never). 5

6. Agricultural and Food Restoration Committees and Guidelines Consist of an agricultural technology expert (preferably from a research center or university), radiological food health specialist, and JAs, local administrative representatives. Committees at local level can have farmer representatives. Would have to be established at the national, provincial (ken) and district (gun) levels anchored within the agricultural department of the prefectural governments and the Ministry of Agriculture at the national level. Able to engage experts on specific subject matters (e.g. salinity, infrastructure engineers, radiation safety etc) as the need may arise. Will assist governments at relevant levels in formulating plans for relief and rehabilitation of agriculture and food. Will come up with guidelines and procedural details for farmers for rejuvenating the agricultural activities and to avail various policy provisions that government has provided for them. 6

7. Re-deploying Agriculture in Areas with No or Safe Radiation Levels Salinity could be a potential limitation in these areas. Classify areas with various degree of salinity Areas with low salinity Introduce saline tolerant rice varieties/sugar beet/soybeans Areas with medium salinity Provide support for reclamation (scraping, leaching, flushing as has been done in Iraq and Australia) Introduce saline tolerant rice varieties Areas with high salinity Assess feasibility for reclamation (in addition application of gypsum) If no reclamation is feasible, Halophytes can provide alternative here (Science, 2008) 7

8. Re-deploying Agriculture in Areas with High Radiation Levels More difficult to restore than areas affected with salinity and hence due care should be taken in finalizing plans for restoration in these areas. Where remediation is not feasible: Consider using land for alternative purposes such as wind-mills, solar power fields etc. Establishment of ‘sanctuaries’ in areas with relatively low radiation levels. Permanent compensation packages to farmers and others affected due to evacuation and loss of livelihood Where remediation is feasible: Initiate procedures for phytoremediation and related reclamation procedures. Continuous monitoring of radiation levels for timely restoration of permissible activities. 8

9. The role of JA (nōgyōkyōdōkumiai) Strengthen its own staff to provide suitable skills and knowledge to farmers on farming under saline conditions, phytoremediation etc. Participate and contribute to Agriculture and Food Restoration Committees Hazen insurance payments to those farmers who obtained crop insurance through JA and associated agencies. Assess its post-disaster performance and establish its own internal standard operating procedures for quicker response to similar events in the future. Assist agriculture extension centers to disseminate necessary information and skills to farmers for restoration. 9

10. Extension Centers and Agriculture Departments Strengthen local extension agencies including/in consultation with Japan Agricultural Development and Extension Association (JADEA). Assess its post-disaster performance and establish standard operating procedures to handle similar events in the future. Conduct livelihood/skill mapping to assist farmers to diversity livelihoods etc. 10

12. Prefectural and National Level Interventions Agriculture and Food Specific Interventions: Assess the health impacts of indices proposed by the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan and integrate the same into the Food Safety Standards of Japan. Integrate radiation standards into major food certifications offered in the country in consultation with Japan Agricultural Standards Association (JAS) Review and modify HACCP and TQM standards to accommodate related radiation safety considerations. Establish regulations for screening and certification procedures for radiation safety in food. Mandatory display of radiation levels in food in retail stores through labeling. Mandatory certification of farms for radiation safety in areas affected by radiation. 12

13. Cont… Agriculture and food-specific Move from the primary responsibility of individual food vendors to check and report radiation safety towards legally binding and compulsory monitoring and reporting procedures. Establish sufficient radiation safety testing equipment for food. Wide dissemination of food safety information to all citizens and lower level response personnel for better decision making . 13

14. Cont… Generic interventions: Assess radiation hazard preparedness learning from the Tohoku incident and strengthen the gaps. Greater connectivity between civil and radiation safety authorities for better radiation safety preparedness. This should be the priority at the prefectural and local levels and especially in those prefectures where nuclear power plants operate. Assess its post-disaster performance and establish standard operating procedures to handle similar events in the future for all relevant civil emergency management agencies. 14

15. Thank You Please write your comments to sivapuram.prabhakar@gmail.com 15