共有する
2020 年 56 巻 1 号 p. 17-18
Junichi Ito
Kyoto University
Professor
It is generally believed that comparative advantage in crop farming depends largely on factor endowments represented by the land-labor ratio in production and the opportunity cost of farm labor measured by the wage rate of non-farm sector. Since agriculture in Asian countries is characterized by a strong majority of small individual farms, a rise in the wage rate associated with economic growth under the meager factor endowments for crop production would result in the loss of international competitiveness or comparative disadvantage in agriculture. This naturally drains scarce resources from agriculture; the labor force declines, which is followed by a decrease in land use intensity, and potentially an increase in farmland abandonment. Nevertheless, it is worth the effort for the Asian populous countries to maintain food production capacity at a certain level in order to help ensure food security in the world.
Central to this problem is the development of land rental markets and consolidation of scattered plots of farmland. Although a growing body of literature has addressed these issues, there yet remains much to be learned about the challenges and future evolution of efficient farmland use. In this symposium, we make a comparative study of agricultural land use and the relevant policies in Japan and China, which has important policy implications not only for these two countries but also for the emerging economies in Asia.
Daisuke Takahashi
Takushoku University
Associate Professor
The purpose of the presentation is to discuss the farmland policy in Japan, focusing on the need for farmland consolidation. The current structural adjustment of Japanese agriculture is related to the reallocation of farmland. It is necessary to concentrate farmland to efficient cultivators and to resolve fragmentation at the same time, namely, to implement farmland consolidation.
Japan has failed to overcome the agricultural adjustment problem, resulting in the predominance of small farms. The share of farmland cultivated by the business farmers was 48.7/56.2% in 2013/18, while the official goal is 80% by 2023. Considering Japan is the frontrunner in Asia in the structural adjustment of agriculture, the structural adjustment is important not only for Japan, but also for other Asian countries.
The government established an intermediary institution called the farmland banks in 2014 for promoting the efficient use of farmland. However, the farmland banks have low utilization rates and will be reviewed. This can be attributed to the failure for the farmland banks to reduce the transaction costs related to farmland and to coordinate the interests of landowners and cultivators.
There is emerging literature to show the evidences on farmland problems in Japan. These studies often use methodologies for causal inference and contribute to the understanding of policy effects while controlling for endogeneity. However, most of these studies focus on the effect of the public policies and projects. More research effort is necessary to study other informal institutions, such as rural communities.
A potential model of farmland consolidation is to form community farming units. Econometric analysis shows that the level of social capital in the community, proxied by the number of local meetings and local activities, is positively associated with the existence and rate of community farming. This finding indicates the role of social capital in farmland consolidation by forming community farming. Vitalization of the Farmers and Farmland Plan, if properly designed, will strengthen the role of public intermediary institutions.
The source of the transaction costs is complex and should be examined empirically. There is a need for further empirical studies on farmland problems, and comparative studies with other Asian countries.
Hisatoshi Hoken
Kwansei Gakuin University
Professor
This presentation seeks to overview the structural changes in Chinese agriculture, with a focus on land use policy. Reforms implemented since 1978 have succeeded first in the countryside, and the entire foundation of the agricultural economy was transformed by the adoption of the “Household Responsibility System” (HRS). However, Chinese agriculture began to face stagnation since the late 1980s because of the institutional instability and diseconomies of scale with respect to the HRS.
To overcome the institutional shortcomings and inefficiency of small scale farming, the Chinese government has intensified the legal protection on land rights and has facilitated agricultural investments since the mid-1990s. Additionally, Chinese government has adopted agro-integration policies since the late 1990s to prevail over the comparative disadvantage of small scale farming and to support the development of the land rental market. More specifically, the establishment of the Famer’s Professional Cooperative and the Shareholding Land Cooperative was strongly promoted to develop a “standardized size of farming” through farmland transaction. The Chinese government also began to increase their investments in agriculture so as to maintain “self-sufficiency in grains.” Thus, local authorities and intermediate agencies face the dilemma regarding the policy target for achieving grain sufficiency and the efficient management of agriculture.
Meanwhile, academic research on the farm management and farmland transaction of China is excessively influenced by the empirical studies of Western scholars, lacking profound insights into the Chinese socio-economic structure and policy issues. Specifically, there is ample room to examine the effects of policy interventions such as minimum support price and related subsidies on grain production efficiency. Furthermore, it is necessary to investigate the relationship between rent-in/out entities to reveal the structure of farmland transaction. Therefore, the accumulation of academic studies and policy discussion by Japanese scholars would be beneficial to examine the policy interventions and institutional reforms required within the context of the Chinese agriculture.
