ORGANIC NETWORK
For those who want to practice organic farming
We believe that because we are new farmers from non-farming backgrounds, we can offer a unique training environment.
If you're even slightly interested, please come visit the farm and talk to us sometime.
In short, I want to produce delicious vegetables.
This environment is suitable for people like that.
As you may know, there are many different types of farmers, and even within vegetable farming, there are various approaches. Some are organic, others are not, and even among organic farmers, there are differences in whether or not they obtain JAS certification, whether or not they use special materials, and where they sell their produce, and so on. But I think the most important thing is what their purpose is in farming. We don't recommend training at a farm where this purpose is misaligned. Of course, there is learning to be gained in any environment, so we don't deny that. By the way, our primary goal is to produce "delicious vegetables" and make our customers happy. "Delicious" means different things to different people. That's why I think it's important to be able to share that sense of "delicious." By the way, our definition of "delicious" is written on our website, so please take a look.
However, pursuing "deliciousness" through organic farming inevitably limits the scale of operation. Therefore, please understand that it may not be suitable for those who want to operate on a large scale and systematically.
Building a daily life as a farmer together
When you hear the word "training," you might imagine something like school, where you're taught everything step by step. However, the training we offer is for becoming a farmer, and it's different from that image. That's because a farmer is a business owner. We believe that you can't "become" a business owner by being taught. Of course, we will teach you cultivation methods and how to do the work. But that's only the surface level. The purpose of the training is to help you figure out why you want to do agriculture, what kind of farmer you want to be, and how to achieve that. To that end, we want you to spend time with us experiencing "daily life as a farmer." And during that time, we want to talk to each other a lot. We believe that by repeating this process, you will come to understand what it means to be a farmer through experience. Once you have that understanding, you're halfway there. Naturally, you'll start to see where you want to go, and all you have to do is focus on acquiring the necessary knowledge, skills, and experience.
There are various methods of training.
We will work together to find solutions tailored to each individual's situation.
Even though it's called training, it's meaningless if you can't make a living during that period. The government is currently trying to increase the number of farmers, so they have prepared various support systems for people who want to become farmers (for details, click on "Support Systems" below). A key feature is that you can get support under conditions that you would never get if you were just trying to start a business on your own. This shows that the government is very aware of the problems facing agriculture. Therefore, it is useful to actively take advantage of such training systems. However, host farmers also need to be certified by the prefecture, so we are also setting up the necessary system.
Of course, there's also the option of not utilizing our training program. We can conduct training through part-time or full-time employment. In that case, you would be required to sign an employment contract with our farm for a certain period. Both methods have their pros and cons, and the best approach will depend on the timing and circumstances. Let's discuss the details when we meet.
