Research on examining the possibility that the theory of commons could be applied to establishing effective policies for agricultural land consolidation.

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24658206
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Irrigation, drainage and rural engineering/Rural planning
• Research Institution: Gakushuin Women's College
• Principal Investigator: SHOBAYASHI MIKITARO 学習院女子大学, 国際文化交流学部, 教授 (10460122)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 連坦化 / 土地利用調整 / 農用地利用改善組合

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research placed the main focus on examining the possibility that collective action by landowners in rural hamlets who are not farmers anymore, would be effective in achieving geographical consolidation of leased lands. Based on the empirical analysis on a case study as well as the conceptual work, “Shingai Model”, in which a group of non-farmer landowners in a rural hamlet act collectively to bring disciplines on the use of their lands by a small number of large scale farmers, could play an important role in improving the overall efficiency, especially when there are positive externalities associated with the disciplines. This idea could also shed lights on a new perspective that differs from the theory of commons focusing mainly on community-owned resources used individually by community members. The research also proposed a few policy suggestions that could encourage the establishment of Shingai Models.

Free Research Field

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