Potential People of Disability in Agriculture, as Social Farming in Japan, Compared with Other Countries

Abstract

Employment of people with disabilities in the agricultural sector has an important role to play in solving labor shortages in the agricultural sector and in promoting employment of people with disabilities in the welfare sector. This review summarizes the development process and overall information on agricultural and welfare initiatives in Japan, and examines future possibilities and challenges by comparing them with social agricultural initiatives overseas. In the United States, agricultural support for people with disabilities is provided in collaboration with state governments and state universities such as AgrAbility. In the Netherlands, care farms are focusing on psychotherapy and exercise training for the disabled and elderly. In Italy, there are many examples of social agriculture initiatives in which socially vulnerable people participate in agricultural activities to improve their health and well-being. In Japan, the participation of people with disabilities in agriculture is attracting attention as a means of providing employment opportunities for people with disabilities and as bearers of agriculture. There are various forms of cooperation between agriculture and welfare, including “direct employment”, “welfare completion”, “inter-group cooperation”, and “intra-group cooperation”. When people with disabilities participate in agricultural activities through any of these types of partnerships, there are issues such as problems that arise when welfare facilities enter the agriculture, understanding of people with disabilities by those involved in agriculture, burdens on the agricultural side to create a working environment for people with disabilities, and lack of support systems such as government for agricultural-food welfare partnerships. Another issue is the expansion of partnership between agriculture and welfare. In order to expand the partnership, there is a lack of human resources and networks that are well versed in both agriculture and welfare.