Abstract
Transfer orchards to improve farm structure has some peculiar difficulties, which have meant that the structural change of fruit farming is behind that of paddy farming. Two difficulties in this regard are particularly important. One is that it is very awkward to estimate orchard rental fees because there are large differences among field conditions. Another is a repayment issue regarding beneficial expenses to fruit tree renewal. In Mikkabi, Shizuoka Prefecture, they have overcome these difficulties and succeeded in promoting orchard transfer by establishing the Farmland Bank to intervene in the lease market. The bank has proposed a rent system based on objective valuation of orchard field to facilitate farmland market, and a rent reduction and long term contracts, such as more than twenty years, to prevent trouble of beneficial expenses repayment. With this, land owners who have lost the capability to invest in fruit tree renewal can identify tenant farmers willing to pay a cost of planting trees.
