Causes and Effects of the Payment for Community-Collaborative Activities to Conserve Land, Water Resources and the Rural Environment

— An analysis by causal modeling based on municipality data —

Abstract

Causal relationships among the Payment for Community-Collaborative Activities to Conserve Land, Water Resources and the Rural Environment (CCA payment), conditions of agricultural infrastructure, and farmland accumulation by large-scale farms are identified by path analysis based on municipality data. Two causal models are developed to regulate the effect of confounding factors. Results show that: (1) conditions of agricultural infrastructure of the area such as farmland consolidation and topography affect the application to the CCA payment; (2) the CCA payment affects agricultural structure of the area such as accumulation of farmland to large scale farmers; (3) sprawling and urbanization negatively affect the agricultural structure of the area; and (4) through the influence on agricultural structure, sprawling and urbanization negatively affect the application to the CCA payment.