Support Organizations for Structural Change in Agriculture

Focusing on the Agricultural Cooperatives

Abstract

Since the period of rapid economic growth, Japanese agriculture has increased its productivity considerably, driven by the market mechanism. The agricultural structure has suffered unprecedented change in this process. This study investigates three points. First, how have the agricultural cooperatives been supporting farm households involved in the drastic change? Second, what can agricultural cooperatives do for sustainable agricultural development? Third, what type of agricultural cooperative is desirable for supporting the realization of new agriculture?
Study results are the following. First, the government has intended a small number of large-scale farm households to take on the major share of the production. On the contrary, the agricultural cooperatives have aimed to keep the current number of farm households. This means that the agricultural cooperatives in our country were based on "the autonomous village," and they should realize "the logic of village"; that is, a farm household must be maintained as a farm household.
Second, it seems to be difficult to upsize the scale of farms as the government intended. In the meantime, the maintenance of farm households that is the agricultural cooperatives' aim also faces difficulties because of the shortage of core farm households in a community. In the background, there is a serious decline of core farm households in Japan. Unless we consider an alternative way which enables the survival of agriculture, the national economy will fail to maintain agriculture.
Third, the government and the agricultural cooperatives have positively promoted environmental conservation agriculture recently. They are basically aiming at a decrease in the use of pesticide or chemical fertilizer. This is not a method for utilizing the full potential of agriculture. It is necessary to convert the base of our society from fossil energy to renewable energy in order to solve global warming and to realize a sustainable society. Agriculture could supply the renewable energy, and therefore it could greatly contribute to this conversion.
Fourth, if agriculture is to play such a role, it is necessary to construct a new social system. The agricultural cooperatives have the potential to do this. In the present "multi-purpose agricultural cooperative form", however, the consciousness of the membership is low, and the business management is not efficient. Drastic reforms of the organization and business are necessary in order to contribute to the construction of the new social system. I propose a network-type of agricultural cooperatives.