Agriculture labor on demand: Matching app Sharagri for farmers

Labor shortage is growing critical in Japanese agriculture. According to a report by Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the aging issue of farmers and decline of new work force are becoming more serious each year. And labor shortage is especially hard to tackle in agriculture because of its characteristics: workload cannot be allocated equally throughout the year. Farmers are struggling to find workers especially at sowing and harvest, but not so much at other stages of farm work [1]. Therefore, individuals looking for a steady work throughout the year are not fit for their demand.

“Sharagri” (a play on the words “share” and “agriculture”) is a new app developed by a company in Tokyo who wants to solve this problem. It is a matching app between farmers who are looking for temporary workers and for people who wish to engage in farming as a part-time worker. There have been other efforts to match farmers and workers in the past. But this app is unique because it gives a chance for people who live in urban areas to experience agriculture. They can do so casually, perhaps even on weekends, since the work period can be as short as one day.

Lately, people who are connected to a rural area, but are not living there are called “relationship population”. They are engaged and connected to their favorite local cities like their hometowns, and enjoy spending time and working there during vacation. The relationship population is gathering attention in many aspects, especially since they can be a key to revitalize rural areas that are facing depopulation and deterioration [2]. Sharagri can also help to increase this relationship population across the country by attracting city-dwellers to connect with local people in rural areas through farming.

Another aspect is the growing popularity and public interest of urban farming in recent years. Many people wish to engage in farming but find difficulty searching for farmland, especially in a crowded city like Tokyo. The app can provide an on-demand farming experience for this group too.

Since the working period can be as short as one-day, women who have small children, but have difficulty finding day-care in order to work on daily basis, can make use of this app to look for day labor. They can apply for a job whenever they have someone to look after their children.

This app service can let young people familiarize themselves with agricultural and farming. Such experience may gradually attract them to choose farming for occupation. Because the ratio of young farmers (aged 15 to 49) to the elderly farmers (70 and older) are one to three in Japan [3], it is a pressing issue to attract youths to farming.

Moreover, from a macro perspective, this matching service may contribute to solving other relevant issues the country is facing today, such as urban concentration, the outflow of population and deterioration in rural areas. The new tech will help change one of the oldest profession in the world: farming.