Abstract
As is generally known, the population of the aged have been increasing faster in the rural area than in the urban area. Especially in semimountainous rural area there are only a few large-scale farmhouseholds which have young people engaged in their farming. Thus the aged in that area have to continue farming because they cannot lease their farming to such large farmhouseholds. There are many problems other than this in semimountainous rural area, but these problems of the aged in agricultural production in that area have been slighted in the field of agricultural economics.
The aim of this paper is to clarify the roles of the aged in maintenance of agricultural production and rural society in semimountainous rural area, and the factors affecting these roles.
As a result of a survey in Oku-Noto, a typical semimountainous rural area, many of the aged have no successors in their farm management and there are only a few farmhouseholds which hope to accumlate the farm land of the aged. Thus, many of the aged do not give up farming and they contribute greatly for the maintenance of agricultural production and rural society. Their contributions are affected by many factors. As regards agricultural production, their contributions are affected by choice of crops, installation of agricultural facilities and natural environments. As regards rural social activities, their contributions are affected by their experiences in off-farn jobs.
