The possibility and Restricting Factors on surviving the part-time farming in Japan

Research Project

Project/Area Number	06660285
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Agro-economics
Research Institution	Kyushu University
Principal Investigator	IWAMOTO Izumi Kyushu University, Faculty of Agriculture, Associate Professor, 農学部, 助教授 (10193773)
Project Period (FY)	1994 – 1995
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1995)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000) Fiscal Year 1995: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000) Fiscal Year 1994: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Keywords	part-time farmer / group farming / 兼業農家 / 営農集団 / 特定農業法人 / 農家の多就業形態
Research Abstract	The researches and the observation of this year lead to the conclusion that the continuity of part-time farms depend on the supplemental functions of the group farming activities especially in Kyushu district. There are two types of group farming which support the part-time farms such as the type of common use of farm machinery and the type of joint farming. The common use type of group farming seems not so large in its operation and easy to get agreement among the farmers in the rural village because the maintenance of the machinery should be take into consideration at least. It, however, difficult to maintain the activities continuously in order to adjust the balance between the utilization fee and the wages for custom work. On the joint farming type of group activities, the farmers manage their farming in one operational unit, so its generates some residuals after deducting expenditures. Nevertheless they could maintain their activities constantly, its quite difficulty to manage these activities without excessive knowledge of book-keeping and accounting. These group activities disturb to develop the liquidity of farm land, because farmers don't lease their farm land after entrusting the operational works to the group farming. Adding to this, water management and clearance of the fields and dikes are another limiting factors to enlarge the group farming activities. To maintain group farming is necessity for part-time farmers to continue both non-farm jobs and farm works. If additional fee or additional investment were acquired to renew the common use machinery, the part-time farmers are able to survive.