稲作法人経営における家族的要素と企業的要素

抄録

Recently, advanced rice farms in Japan have been characterized by rapid scale expansion, business diversification, and employment growth. This study analyzes changes in the family and corporate elements of advanced farm management by investigating two large-scale rice farms in Ibaraki Prefecture. These farms each cover 100 ha of paddy fields and engage in direct sales of rice and rice processing. Moreover, this paper examines the acquisition of managerial resources and business ownership by farm families with respect to land use, market development, human resources, and capital structure.

The main findings are discussed below.

During rapid expansion and diversification of a farm business, farms nowadays recruit human resources from outside the farm, with employees contributing to some part of daily farm management. These changes represent the growing corporate factors in advanced farming.

Regarding the accumulation of capital for business expansion, the farm president’s family provides most of the capital and holds the risk. In exchange, the family dominates governance related to management goals and strategy, including decisions related to farm scale expansion and diversification, policy for dividing retained earnings in the future, and top management succession. Thus, the family retains the business ownership.