Economic Sustainability of Family Farming in Depopulated Areas

Abstract

This paper provides a systems approach to analyzing economic viability of agrarian communities in depopulated areas, whereby our focus is addressed to the assessment of the managerial sustainability of family farming, which is very vulnerable to changes in market environment. In our formulation, a kengyo household which runs farming as a side job is described in the form of a producer-consumer complex, which is an economic unit simultaneously possessing both aspects of a producer and a consumer. We also develop an analytical model to assess the economic sustainability of family farming. A case study in Maori prefecture illustrates how individual family farming in depopulated areas can be viable under the coming free trade regime of agricultural products. It also demonstrates the applicability and the potential of our model in assessing the illustrated points.