2019 Volume 19 Issue 1+2 Pages 111-123
The concern of this research focused on what kind of role NPO engaged in diverse locally-based activities have as leaders of agricultural land management in order to eliminate abandoned arable land. The research examined the actual conditions and potential of agricultural land management through the activities of NPO and clarified what kind of activities engaged in by NPO are effective for agricultural management and the impact and future outlook of these activities. A qualitative study was conducted of the NPO that were the subject of this research, and they were classified into four groups based on the substance of their agricultural land management activities. The annual budget was increasing for agricultural land management that promoted urban and rural interaction and involved urban residents and initiatives that developed multiple agricultural land management activities and managed to secure sales channels for crops. Agricultural land management through allotment gardens and the planting of landscape crops which can save labor at NPO was also able to manage a large area of agricultural land. As for the local impact of agricultural land management by NPO, local trust and understanding was obtained due to socially significant agriculture-welfare collaboration and ongoing agricultural land management initiatives. While extensive agricultural land management has low productivity and poor economic efficiency, certain effects on the elimination of abandoned arable land through the efforts of NPO were demonstrated.
