Strategies for Sustaining and Developing Agriculture in the Hokuriku District

Abstract

One of the greatest problems of contemporary agriculture in Japan is how to maintain and develop food production. This paper discusses strategies for sustaining and developing agriculture in the Hokuriku district. There are two main types of successful farm successors: large-scale tenant farms and community farms. The three examples of large-scale tenant farms in Niigata and Ishikawa prefectures have sought profitable farm businesses and played an important role in sustaining farmland, farming, and rural communities. Large-scale tenant farms generally increase their scales of operation, develop multiple operations, and integrate production, processing, and marketing. On the other hand, community farms mostly focus on maintaining farming and the community in each locality. Our field studies suggest that both types of farms are expected to become dominant successors in the Hokuriku district.

Transition of Farmland Use in a Japanese Mountainside Settlement: An Analysis of the Residents’ Career Histories

“…Previous research has mainly focused on male headsof-households or individuals whose primary occupation is farming (for example, Otake 2008;Shimizu 2013;Tabayashi 2007;Tabayashi and Kikuchi 2016). Yet, with household heads, especially young males, working in the non-agricultural sector, other individuals, including farmers' wives, parents, and returning offspring play an important role in farm management, (Little 1997;Araki 2002;Gullifer and Thompson 2006;Maclaren 2017).…”