抄録
"Farm Contractor" is expected to be one of the solutions to lighten the family labor load in the dairy farming sector of Hokkaido. Several private farm contractor companies were established in 1991 to assist with family farm activities in the Tokachi area. After 3 years of operation, some of the farm contractors have left the market.
Regarding this issue, this study reflects the effects of the imperfect information on the farm contracts by adopting the extensive-form game theory. Both farm contractors and farms were interviewed to understand the situation of farm contracts and the form of contracts in the Tokachi area of Hokkaido in Japan. It reveals that operator's skilfulness of the farm contractors and the various farm's environmental conditions such as farm land condition and agricultural weather condition were the main sources of imperfect information in the contracts. This study focused on the three major points: First, why farm contractors supply "low quality service"; secondly, why "high quality contractors" do not enter the farm sector; and thirdly, why the farms are asking them to do only simple work. It was found that in response to the low charge and low quality of services supplied by farm contractors, simple work requested by farms is the most plausible solution in this model. Although "high charge and high quality service, entrust difficult job" is preferable to both farmer and farm contractor companies, the solution became a so-called prisoners' dilemma, because of the existence of imperfect information. When the game is repeated infinitely, "high charge and high quality service, entrust" is perfect equilibrium according to Folk's theorem, but this equilibrium could not be realized. The service of the contractor depends on the operator's skilfulness and effort. So "belief" that support the perfection is not easily made. The implication of this analysis is that the certification of the farm contractors' services by an authorized public organization might strengthen the farm's "belief" that the services are good, and this may improve the recent farm contractor market situation.
