Rice as a source of animal feed is expected to become not only a new crop use to compensate for the decline in rice demand for human consumption but also to fulfill demand for domestically produced concentrated feed. One of the prerequisites to qualify for a current subsidy in Japan requires rice farmers to find livestock farmers that will agree to use rice as feed prior to rice production. This paper describes one such matching system for rice and animal feed through a case study of Kyoto Coop's project called “Sakura Rice Eggs”, and illuminates which stakeholders play what function in the system, and how they deal with changes to the fundamental operating conditions, including subsidy systems. To this end, this paper elaborates two dimensions: the first is the process of erecting a suitable value chain through matching, and the second is the assignment of roles for stakeholders in the matching system. Finally, this paper summarizes the reality of the situation and the challenges faced in the matching system.
The findings of this paper demonstrate that, through the facilitation of Kyoto municipality, neighboring farmers and Kyoto Co-op are initially successful in setting up the matching system for local rice feed and navigating the various hurdles, including: cooperation among themselves, setting up opportunities for the government and other stakeholders (e.g. cooperatives, private enterprises, and livestock farmers） to work together to exchange information. These efforts engendered a common purpose of protecting local farmland.
Furthermore, a central actor, the Kyoto Co-op, was willing to engage its information management system to facilitate matching between farmers producing small amount of rice for animal feed and feed producers, despite various difficulties. However, the fundamental conditions of this project have meaningfully changed in the past decade, and this paper concludes that the matching system has not adapted to the new economic and labor challenges, particularly those relating to distributions and storage.

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