2019 Volume 28 Issue 1 Pages 46-62
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.
