An Analysis on the Spatial Disparity and Beta Convergence in Agricultural Communities

In Search of an Extinction Threshold

Abstract

This paper sheds light on spatial disparity across agricultural communities in Japan. In the remote and marginal areas, maintaining agricultural activities is increasingly difficult, thereby casting doubt on the sustainability of agricultural communities. Beta convergence tests are employed to determine whether the disparities of (1) the number of farmers, (2) land use, (3) the revenue per farmer, and (4) the number of community activities tend to decline or not. Our regression analysis supports the presence of Beta convergence for most variables, implying that there is no threshold below which agricultural communities inevitably disappear.