Geographical studies on the restructuring of farmland use governance through the expansion of regional farming groups

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K12583
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 04020:Human geography-related
• Research Institution: Iwate University (2021-2022); Aomori Chuo Gakuin University (2018-2020)
• Principal Investigator: SHOJI Gen 岩手大学, 教育学部, 准教授 (90774696)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 地域営農組織 / 農地利用ガバナンス / 農地集積 / 社会ネットワーク

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to clarify the mechanism of farmland accumulation to regional farming groups in terms of the coordination of farmland-related interests between regional farming groups and farmland owners, and the social networks that coordinate these interests.
As a result, rural self-governing organizations played a major role in the accumulation of farmland to regional farming groupes. This is because the self-governing organizations coordinated the opinions of farmland owners.
However, the role of self-governing organizations in coordinating the opinions of farmland owners was weak in areas where the number of farmers leaving farming increased early and where individual farmers expanded their farmland early on, resulting in issues such as sprawling farmland use and the absence of local agricultural leaders in these areas.

Free Research Field

人文地理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

日本農業の新たな担い手の一つとして注目されているのが、地域営農組織である。地域営農組織の農業従事者の確保や農業経営の戦略が既往研究で多く検討されているのに対し、本研究では地域営農組織の設立と広域化を、農地をめぐる利害関係の調整という視点から考察した。その結果得られた、地域営農組織の展開に関わる自治組織の重要性や、離農の増加や個別農家の拡大が早くからみられる地域での農地利用の調整の困難といった課題は、学術的に新たな観点からの検討であるだけでなく、持続的な農地利用を考察するための成果といえる。