The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the production techniques for balancing sustainable resource use and scale expansion on livestock farming in Inner Mongolia, especially in an “Agricultural farming and cattle breeding area.” The recursive linear programming method was applied to data on livestock farming behavior and regional resource conditions.
Specifically, the production techniques subjected to evaluation were as follows : 1) conventional local livestock farming techniques, 2) additional utilization of grasslands revitalized by the Conservation Set-Aside Program, 3) additional utilization of the forage produced on individual land holdings, and 4) additional utilization of forage purchased from other farmers in same the region.
The results indicate that local livestock farming can be sustainable for nine years the introduction of all four of the above techniques. This means that the diffusion of all these techniques should be efficient for livestock farming in this area, but other kinds of new techniques must be developed in order to deliver sustainable local livestock farming for the period beyond nine years.

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The purpose of this study is to describe the duties of absentee heirs in the context of how issues that relate to farmland management, administrative management of communities, and landlord absenteeism in hilly and mountainous areas may be mitigated. Based on analyses of farmland conditions, interviews, and questionnaire surveys, we have found that absentee heirs have a strong intent to return to the communities of their birth. A number of absentee heirs intend to contribute to conserving their farmland through activities such as farm work, clean up, and regular purchases of agricultural produce. Moving forward, it will be necessary to maintain the relationship between absentee landlords and absentee heirs on the one hand, and community residents on the other. The authors believe that, by establishing a “sodateru-kai” for the general management of the community, as well as farmland management, comprehensive management can be effected in the region targeted in this study.

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Since Japanese consumers tend to choose high-quality apples, Japanese apple farmers need many unskilled workers (for harvesting fruit, removing bad-quality fruit, and removing leaves that block the sunlight) as well as workers with pruning skills. As a result, apple farming is based mainly on manual labor. In Japan, it is difficult for large-scale apple orchards to have higher productivity and profitability than middle- or small-scale orchards because large-scale orchards incur higher costs as they employ more workers. According to Toyoda Takashi’s studies in the 1980s, workers were in short supply in large-scale orchards ; consequently, yields in these orchards decreased. He called the apple orchards “Sohouka-daikeiei.”
However, nowadays, large-scale apple orchards show high productivity and profitability. “S” orchard in Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture, is one such orchard. However, “S” orchard once was a typical apple orchard with low productivity. What improvements did “S” orchard make? The aim of this study was to evaluate “S” orchard’s management so as to elucidate the reasons why “S” orchard has high productivity and profitability for its success. To achieve this aim, I analyzed two questionnaires completed in 1985 and 2011, financial statements, and work-hour data.
“S” orchard changed its management in the following manner. (1) “S” orchard hired middle-aged and young men who were not working at the orchard in 1985. (2) “S” orchard established a labor-saving farming system and simultaneously reduced the number of unskilled workers. (3) “S” orchard stopped selling apples to agriculture cooperatives and rural sellers and started selling directly to retailers and consumers.
“S” orchard attained the following advantages : (1) land productivity increased after several middleaged and young men were recruited as workers to control soil and apple-tree quality. (2) working hours per 10a were reduced. (3) Thus, labor productivity improved as a result of the above-mentioned changes. (4) New selling methods helped sell “S” orchard’s low-grade apples at higher than market prices. As a result, the average price of the apples sold by “S” orchard increased. (5) Profitability improved with increases in labor productivity and average prices.
“S” orchard’s management has become a model for the management of a large-scale apple orchard.

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In order to address the environmental problems caused by manure composting, it is necessary to use compost over a comprehensive geographical area, such as via compost sales to arable farmers. However, the labor potential of an individual livestock farmer limits this potential.
The purpose of this paper is to build a sales model of compost based on the conditions of cooperation between livestock farmers, and to calculate the best distribution of the sales revenue based on cooperative game theory.
Based on the results, I examine the system of compost sales by cooperation between farmers and the methods of revenue distribution.
The results indicate that a cooperative compost sales system between farmers enables them to transport, spray, fill bags and sale self-sufficiently to an extent during the harvest period that individual farmers can’t do.
And it is shown clearly that the prevention of the environmental impact coming from compost and the increase in the revenue of compost sales for each farmer is possible.

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