Abstract
In the small Islands of Nansei Shoto, farmers seek the production of vegetables which have high land productivity because it is difficult for them to expand the cultivated land area. But the turnover of vegetable items is large and the growing districts have not been established in the islands because of the susceptibility of climate and market and the disadvantage of the transportations. The purposes of this paper are to describe the characteristics of the production and distribution of taroes and to clarify the shipment behavior of farmers in Yoron island. The difference of the positioning of taro in farm income affects the shipment behavior of farmers: if the share of taro accounts for large portion of the agricultural income, farmers choose a high price means of sorting and shipment time. However, if the share accounts are low, they choose lower price means of sorting and shipment time. Since farmers can choose the means of sorting and the long-term harvesting period maintains a high price of taro, the different types of farmers can ship taroes for many years.
