The New Trend of Community Farming in the Tohoku Region

概要

This study aims to identify new trends in community farming in the Tohoku region, one of Japan's leading breadbasket regions. The fi ndings indicate that many community farming organizations are acquiring a corporate status and employing fulltime workers, leading to increased revenues from community farming organizations. Additionally, there is a trend toward introducing or expanding new labor-intensive crops, such as vegetables and fruit trees, requiring a large labor investment, highly mechanized land-use crops, such as rice and soybeans, and direct marketing. Lastly, there is a tendency to engage in projects needed by the local community, such as outsourced farm work and civil engineering projects. As described above, community farming organizations evolve from organizations that complement farmers' management and maintain farmland use in the community to integrated business entities that support the local community.