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JA (Japan Agricultural Co-operative) is
organized in every prefecture and municipality throughout
the country, based on the principle of mutual cooperation,
with the purpose of protecting farming and living of its
individual members. To this end, JAs are engaged in various
activities including farm guidance, marketing of farm
products, supplies of production inputs, credit and mutual
insurance businesses, while they are referred to as "multi-purpose
agricultural co-operatives".
Almost of the farmers in Japan join the respective JA
as regular members, while non-farmers as associate members
are increasingly affiliated with JAs to enjoy their services
such as credit and mutual insurance.
 FARM GUIDANCE
Farm guidance is one of the JA's most important activities,
which provides member farmers with guidance to improve
their farm management and production technologies. Farm
advisors of JAs offer such guidance particularly through
producers' groups who are organized on commodity-wise
basis. With a view to contributing to better farming of
member farmers, these advisors promote many activities
of farmers such as joint marketing of their agricultural
products and joint purchases of production materials.
Field technical guidance services are also offered to
farmers by those advisors.
BETTER LIVING GUIDANCE
JA offers better living guidance to farmers and their
family members. In many cases, JA's better living advisors
organize JA women's associations consisting of house
wives of farm families, through which, better living
advisors promote activities of those associations such
as health management for member families, house budgeting,
reading sessions, recreation activities, trips, and
joint purchases of high quality daily necessities.
CREDIT BUSINESS
JA's credit business is engaged in various banking activities
including collection of savings, extension of loans,
domestic and foreign exchange transactions, discounting
of bills and government bonds transactions. The basic
purpose of the JA's credit business is to contribute
to better farming and living of member families by promoting
saving and mutual financing among members. The credit
business sector of the JA Group, referred to as the
JA Bank, constitutes the largest private sector community-based
financial institution in the country.
MUTUAL INSURANCE BUSINESS
JA's mutual insurance business is to offer to member
families a system that protect the present and future
well-being of member families, thereby guaranteeing
their personal and financial security, as well as ensuring
the stability of their farming and lives. JA employees
called life advisers (LA), who have expert knowledge
on life planning and mutual insurance, carry on sales
promotion of various mutual insurance contracts to meet
the diversified needs in members' life cycles. The JA's
mutual insurance business also contributes to the JA's
welfare activities for the elderly and local traffic
safety campaigns.
MARKETING BUSINESS
JA's marketing activities of agricultural products produced
by its member farmers plays an important role in increasing
their farm income. In order to get better prices of
these products in the market, JA promotes many joint
activities of member farmers in marketing farm products
mainly through joint grading and joint shipment of products,
as well as in close contact with its better farming
guidance promoted by co-operative farm advisors particularly
on unified standards for agricultural production and
livestock feeding. Most JAs are equipped with marketing
facilities including joint grading centers of farm products,
temperature-controlled warehouses and grain elevators.
In recent years, an increasing number of JAs have also
been operating farmers' markets so as to promote the
campaign of "local production and local consumption."
SUPPLYING BUSINESS
JA's purchasing activities are intended to supply member
farm families with production inputs such as fertilizers,
chemicals and agricultural machinery, as well as with
high quality daily necessities at lower prices. In many
cases, such joint purchasing activities are implemented
on the basis of advanced order systems, while ZEN-NOH,
National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative
Associations, collects these orders of farmers through
its member JAs to bargain with respective companies
for reducing their prices of commodities to be supplied
to farmers. A number of JAs also manage A-COOP chain
supermarkets and gas stations for member families and
local people.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
A number of JAs are engaged in diverse activities including
processing business of agricultural products, promotion
of members' house-renting business, and travel agency
business. With a view to contributing to the respective
local community, JAs are now increasingly implementing
new activities such as welfare services for the elderly,
assistance to operation of school orchards, supplies of
foodstuffs to school lunch, and environmental protection.
Furthermore, many JAs and their organizations have been
participating in international cooperation activities. |
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