abstract: 'Traditional agricultural practice in the Saga plain was formerly a

  combination of paddy rice, which was the main crop, and wheat/barley,

  which was the secondary crop. However, when production adjustments to

  paddy rice started in the 1970s, the original agricultural practice was

  changed to a combination of paddy rice and a rotating crop of soybeans

  along with a secondary crop of wheat/barley. Further, since the 1970s,

  issues such as competition between agricultural land use and urban land

  use, income disparity between agricultural and non-agricultural

  employment, and a shortage of farming successors became serious, which

  in turn caused great difficulty in sustaining agriculture and farmland.

  Under such circumstances, farmers in the Saga plain started to develop

  rural community-based farming as a strategy to sustain agriculture and

  farmland, as well as to manage the harvesting and drying process of

  rice, wheat/barley, and soybean collaboratively. Consequently, the block

  rotation system of cultivating paddy rice and soybeans together with

  shared use of rice planting and harvesting machines progressed and

  agriculture and farmland that combined rice, wheat/barley, and soybeans

  in the region tended to survive. On the other hand, due to a lack of

  leadership, community cohesion, and full-time farmers, some rural

  community-based farms began to be converted into agricultural

  corporations as another strategy. This strategy was encouraged by a new

  national agricultural policy. There were also farmers who did not

  participate in rural community-based farming, and many of them were

  full-time farmers who functioned as certified farmers. Such full-time

  farmers have expanded the scale of managing arable land by purchasing

  and leasing farmland (paddy field) from part-time farmers, both inside

  and outside the region, with the intention of securing successors to

  carry on agriculture. Thus, large-scale rice farmers gradually

  amalgamated the paddy fields of part-time farmers and expanded the scale

  of agricultural management. There were two types of large-scale

  farmer-farmers maintaining relationships with rural community-based

  farming and agricultural cooperatives such as JA, and independent

  farmers who had a tendency to become agricultural corporations. The

  decision to become an agricultural corporation was largely influenced by

  several key factors including the existence of a successor to continue

  farming, managerial skills of business operators, and the level of the

  family workforce of farmers. In other words, as a result of securing

  successors, large-scale rice farmers could start businesses such as

  drying preparation facilities, and build their own sales networks.

  Further, in order to control substantial production costs, the family

  workforce was used for production, processing, clerical work, and sales

  promotions. As a result, agriculture in the Saga plain was supported by

  rural community-based farming, independent large-scale paddy farmers,

  and large-scale paddy farmers incorporated into agricultural

  organizations, and these divisions of the management strategy were based

  on the degree of agricultural labor and community bonding forces. A

  series of distinctive strategies largely contributed to the survival and

  development of agriculture and farmland in the Saga plain.'
affiliation: 'Kikuchi, T (Corresponding Author), Tokyo Metropolitan Univ, Grad Sch
  Urban Environm Sci, Hachioji, Tokyo 1920397, Japan.

  Kikuchi, Toshio, Tokyo Metropolitan Univ, Grad Sch Urban Environm Sci, Hachioji,
  Tokyo 1920397, Japan.

  Tabayashi, Akira, Univ Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 3058572, Japan.'
author: Kikuchi, Toshio and Tabayashi, Akira
author_list:
- family: Kikuchi
  given: Toshio
- family: Tabayashi
  given: Akira
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.5026/jgeography.128.209
eissn: 1884-0884
files: []
issn: 0022-135X
journal: JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHY-CHIGAKU ZASSHI
keywords: 'paddy farming; community-based farming; agricultural corporation;

  large-scale rice farm; Saga Plain'
language: Japanese
number: 2, SI
number-of-cited-references: '20'
pages: 209-233
papis_id: 2bad51a8cb65668fb6572589a1897424
ref: Kikuchi2019strategiessustaining
times-cited: '3'
title: Strategies for Sustaining and Developing Paddy Farming in the Saga Plain, Southwestern
  Japan
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000471604500005
usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
usage-count-since-2013: '3'
volume: '128'
web-of-science-categories: Geography, Physical
year: '2019'