Abstract
In the management of urban JAs, excessive reliance on the credit business poses a business risk. Therefore, from the perspective of risk diversification, it is necessary in the future to increase earnings of agriculture-related businesses, and for this purpose, it is essential to strengthen farming guidance services. In this study, we focused on three urban JAs that are in charge of areas where agriculture is relatively active in Osaka Prefecture, and examined the possibility of increasing the number of farm advisors based on data from disclosure magazines, materials obtained from Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives of Osaka, and results of interview surveys with JA officials. As a result, in two of the three cases, the management situation was sufficient to support an increase in the number of farm advisors. However, even in such urban JAs, both the farming guidance services and the agriculture-related businesses are facing increasing difficulties in terms of business balance. This suggests that increasing the number of farm advisors alone may not be enough to solve the problems．
