"For human and environment-friendly farm working!"
About JSFWR
JSFWR (Japanese Society of Farm Work Research) is a Japanese leading organization researching rationalization of farm work, and aims to spread the agricultural technologies and provide opportunities of discussion among members.
The society was established in 1986, which originates from a special interest group initially established in 1965 for the sake of rich and attractive agriculture, rural communities, and the creation of the production circumstances considering preservation of global environment.
The mission of the society is securement and maintenance of food and fiber, and developing the science and technology relating to farm working.
The society is today registered to the Science Council of Japan as one of the cooperative academic research organizations, and accedes to the alliances such as AJASS (Association of Japanese Agricultural Scientific Societies) and JAICABE (Japan Association of International Committee of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering), which major academic agricultural science societies participate.
Diversity of membership and research objects
The members consist of researchers working for universities, various research institutes or companies, and farmers engaged in agricultural studies. The domain of expertise centers managed ecosystems and other various fields concerning agricultural and human sciences (e.g. crop, horticulture, livestock, forestry, machinery, structures, management, labor, ergonomics, and informatics).
In recent years, a volume of researches to create agricultural systems harmonizing with the environment are concurrently conducted in the considerable rise of environmental problems.
Major activities
JSFWR publishes the paper-based quarterly journal which is also released on J-Stage as free online resource, and takes place annual meetings in spring and symposiums coupled with technical visits in autumn as major activities.
As for the spring annual meeting, an assembly determining amendments and annual plans is convened.
Simultaneously, oral sessions by members to preset their research achievements are organized, including synthetic discussions provided every 4-5 sessions to fulfill profound consideration as to the issues.
The autumn meeting offers a symposium to discuss issues along with the themes selected by means of technical visit to inspect various rural fields in Japan. Inspections of sites were respectively conducted and introduction of research outcomes and deliberation of specific tactics are approached.
(e.g. Miyazaki, 2005; 'revelations and challenges of large agricultural corporations', Osaka, 2006; 'universal design/barrier-free technology' and 'challenges to seeding soybeans', Hokkaido, 2007; 'for fulfillment of super power-saving crop production systems', Chiba, 2008; 'revelations and challenges of organic farming', Hyogo, 2009; 'experiencing regional multiple farming', Fukushima, 2010; 'realization of human and environment-friendly fruit production')
In addition, branch meetings in 7 blocks are successively convened.
As international contributions, lectures and seminars at CIGR (Commission Internationale du Geine Rural) and in other countries such as the United States, Thailand, and Indonesia are co-organized by the society with local organizations in a positive manner.
One of the unique activities of the society is the quality of collection and publication about farm working data.
The data of crops were accumulated from 1982 to 1996, utilized as basic reference for application of new technology and composition of operation systems.
Recently, since machinery and technology in other fields such as vegetables are developed, data collection from a new point of view is necessary to create.
The data are thus available on the Internet for further development of agricultural technology, including about 150 records such as rice, winter cereals, millets, root and tuber crops, pulses, forage crop, fruit tree, industrial crop, vegetables, and flowers and ornamental plnts.
