Potential for Commuter Farming to Promote Agricultural Production Infrastructure: A Qualitative Analysis of Farmers’ Attitudes in a Citrus Production Island Area

• Yamamoto Kazuhiro

  Graduate School of Agriculture, Ehime University

• Nakamoto Eri

  National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Western Region Agricultural Research Center

• Matsushita Shusuke

  Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba

• Fujii Yoshitaka

  Faculty of Regional Policy, Aichi University

Bibliographic Information

Other Title

• 担い手確保・産地維持方策としての通勤農業の可能性―島しょ部柑橘産地を事例とした意向調査の質的分析―

Abstract

Commuter farming can be defined as farming managed by farmers who do not live in the rural area near the farmland and thus must commute from a more urbanized area. The aims of this study were to examine the potential of commuter farming and to clarify its effects on promoting regional agricultural production infrastructure in a citrus production island area in Japan. The questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews had been conducted on 14 farmers, who are the overall sample of commuter farming in that area. The main conclusions of this study can be summarized as follows. (1) There are several advantages of commuter farming over traditional farming. For example, commuter farmers can enjoy more conveniences in daily life, a better educational environment for their children, greater opportunity to communicate with other farmers during the commute, a more reasonable balance between work and personal life, and fewer conflicts with family members. (2) These advantages can encourage more children from farm households to become carrier farmers and set up their own households in their home towns. (3) The advantages can also make the regional agricultural production infrastructure more stable by increasing the number of farmers and by bringing abandoned land back into production. (4) To encourage commuter farming, some types of public assistance may be needed, such as subsidies for commuting expenses in the short run and for maintaining local infrastructure in the long run.

Journal

• Agricultural Information Research

  Agricultural Information Research 28 (1), 46-62, 2019

  Japanese Society of Agricultural Informatics

Keywords

• commuter farming
• carrier farmers
• agricultural production infrastructure
• correspondence analysis
• citrus farming

Details

• CRID: 1390845713072295296
• NII Article ID: 130007621894
• DOI: 10.3173/air.28.46
• ISSN: 18815219
• ISSN: 09169482
• Web Site: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/air/28/1/28_46/_pdf
• Text Lang: ja
• Data Source:
  • JaLC
  • Crossref
  • CiNii Articles
  • KAKEN
• Abstract License Flag: Disallowed