Agricultural structure of paddy field farming and core producers in the Tohoku Region: A case study in Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture

Large-scale farms and community-based group farming organizations (CGF) are expected to become core producers in Japan's paddy field farming sector. However, each is now facing serious problems. Recent years have seen the number of large-scale farms shrinking, and while the number of CGF has increased, many new CGF have little content as a corporate entity. The objectives of this paper are as follows. 1) Examining the willingness to expand the scale of farming of large-scale farms according to types of farms. 2) Clarifying the business contents of CGF and the reasons for their establishment. And 3) prospecting the core producers in paddy field farming in the near future. The results of this paper are as follows. 1. There are three types of large-scale farms: a) upland and dairy farms operated by farm households or agricultural corporations, b) livestock farms operated by farm households, and c) rice farms operated by farm households. While farm households engaged in upland, dairy and livestock activities have no interest in scale expansion, upland and dairy corporations have a keen interest. Rice farm households having a paddy field of 4 hectares or more have a willingness to expand farming scale, and households having a paddy field of 7 hectares or more have a strong intention to expand farming scale up to 15ha. 2. Many CGF produce rice by way of individual households, but rice diversion crops such as wheat and forage crops are products of collaboration households. The CGF are established in local areas where there will be an insufficient number of farmers borrowing farmland from farmer to realize retirement in the future. CGF organizations are expected to borrow such land to produce not only rice diversion crops, but also rice in collaboration households. 3. The types of core producers in rice farming differ from those in upland agriculture. In upland agriculture, upland and dairy farms by agricultural corporations are expected to be positioned as core producers in the near future the same as now. In contrast, in rice farming, large-scale rice farms and CGF producing rice diversion crops and rice in collaboration households are expected to gain positioning as core producers.