By Yoshinori
In thick fog, foresters cut very heavy and tall trees and process them into various shapes for timber. No matter how tired their bodies are, they make wood that is indispensable to our daily lives, which is used as a material for furniture, paper, and other materials.
Under strong sunlight, farmers grow their vegetables and fruits as if they were their own children. No matter how hot it is, no matter how cold it is, they water them every day and are happy to watch them grow.
In heavy rain, fishermen board rocking boats and catch fresh and delicious-looking fish. Regardless of how hard they are, they fish almost every day to sell fresh and tasty fish to consumers.
In the Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Marine Sciences at Kochi University, there are two students, who are working to support these primary industries of Kochi Prefecture. The woman’s name is Furin Tani and the man’s name is Tomoatsu Tsuge. They created the group name that English name is “Team that Connects Forests, Villages and the Sea”. This group will serve as a bridge for each primary industry.
Since long years ago, Kochi has been known for its primary industry. These primary industries are still the main industries in Kochi; however, they are facing a crisis.
“The issue in fisheries is the decreasing the catch of fish and fisherman can’t serve enough fish for people,” Furin said. Kochi is famous for its fresh fish, especially bonito. However, the catch of fish has been decreasing annually, and in 2019, it was the worst.
“Year by year, the yield may decrease due to abnormal weather,” she said. There are many unique fruits and vegetables in Kochi, however the vegetables and fruits that should be harvested are gradually not harvested.
“The value of timber is declining year by year,” said Furin. “This is very painful for foresters.” Recently, it has improved, but due to excessive logging in the past, the forestry industry is no longer able to harvest high-quality timber. The window to solve these problems is closing; however, they must be solved somehow as soon as possible.
For example, foresters and fishermen can use unusable timber to construct fishing reefs. Additionally, some marine organisms that negatively affect fisheries have positive effects on forest soils. Fishermen and farmers can convert discarded crops into feed for farmed fish. In addition, starfish, which occurs in large quantities, can be powdered, and used as fertilizer. However, in fact, the relationship between primary industries is not very good because each industry has its own deep traditions. Therefore, this group plays an important role.
Since last year, after entering university, Furin and Tomoatsu have been interested in Kochi’s primary industries. Especially, Furin were many opportunities to become involved in the primary industry. In addition, she went to high school, which focused on Forestry. She cut the wood and used it to make desks and chairs. Therefore, through the training, she learned about the difficulties and hardships of forestry and felt that she wanted to convey the charm and greatness of this industry to many people. At the same time, she wanted to solve problems and challenges in other primary industries.
“We have two main goals of this group,” said Tomoatsu.
The first goal was to tell the importance of the environment to children and students. In addition, they hope that one day they will hold environmental education classes for young people as NPO. They want young people to think slightly about the environment a little bit in their daily lives by making them aware of what happens now and how it will negatively affect the future.
The other is for this group to be an intermediary between each primary industry and solve the problems of each industry as much as possible. “Right now, each primary industry is not going to cooperate with each other,” Furin said. Some industries have a long-standing tradition and are hesitant to try new methods, even if the situation gets too much worse.
According to the government, 17,700 tons of bonito were caught in 2010, but 9,989 tons were caught in 2019. In just nine years, only approximately half of the bonito can be caught. This is not only a problem for bonito but also for other major fish. The overall catch has also declined by 20% over the nine years.
By the way, the outline of this group is to understand the real situation between forestry, fisheries, and agriculture and to consider solutions so that the issues and problems obtained from field surveys can be solved through cooperation among these three industries. In other words, it is an organization that creates relationships between agriculture and forestry industries and helps these industries sustain themselves better.
“What we focus on are ‘field’ and ‘real’ of primary industry,” said Furin.
They actually visit people involved in the primary industry and interview them about the industry. It is also possible to make new discoveries by going to the site. They consider not only the information obtained from the interviews, but also what they actually feel and think about what can be done for the primary industry.
Reality is more important than data. They want to know the depth and reality of the primary industry.
“Even though there may be misinformation, we can usually only learn about the primary industry from textbooks and lectures by teachers and professors,” Furin mentioned strongly. “Just by knowing the data and the situation, we cannot know the true feelings of the people involved in the industry.”
The problems faced by each industry are increasing annually, therefore, they should be solved as soon as possible.
“I am sure that each industry will develop by connecting and cooperation,” Furin said. “There is a relationship between forestry and fisheries that uses each other’s characteristics to solve problems.”
However, they have significant problems. That is, there are not enough people. As a result, they are unable to advertise their activities. Thus, they came up with other ways of advertising. The first is to use Instagram. The second is to create a homepage and post what kinds of activities they are performing. Third, YouTube can be used to inform many people about their activities and statuses using videos.
But that’s not enough. Only a few people browse them, and if they are not interested in their activities, they rarely search for them. Therefore, they had to consider other ways to do so. They are looking to use ads to get many kinds of people to know what they are doing, although, of course, it costs money.
Finally, Furin and Tomoatsu expressed their passions and future goals.
“I would like to actually interview and record the voices of people who live in Kochi and are involved in the industry and convey it to many people. Because Kochi is full of nature, there are things we can do,” said Furin. “It is impossible for us to solve the problems we are facing on our own, so we would like to improve them by disseminating information and letting many people know about the current misery and how to solve it.”
“I will do my best to summarize the information I have obtained from the interviews and convey the current state of forestry, agriculture, and fisheries to many people,” said Tomoatsu. “My goal is to create a structure in which forestry, agriculture, and fisheries cooperate with each other.”
For more information, please see:
Instagram name: morisatoumi.tsunagitai
e-mail address: msu.tsunagitai@gmail.com
homepage: https://morisatoumi-tsunagitai.localinfo.jp/
Life in Kochi 