This analysis focuses on representatives and successors of agricultural production corporations, and particularly on their current working status, based on which we summarize the challenges that successors face with regard to acquiring abilities and skills relating to agricultural production and business aspects of the corporation at “junbiki,” “ukeireki” and “ikuseiki”.

A difference exists between the work environment provided by agricultural production corporations and the working conditions sought by successors in that the corporations tend to prioritize facility improvements, whereas successors tend to seek better salary and insurance benefits. Therefore, the latter will need to be improved in order to secure and train successors. Additionally, one of the challenges that agricultural production corporations face with regard to training successors is that the development of managerial capabilities―including human resource management, leadership, business management, and other capabilities that successor will need―is often deferred. Business management and sales abilities are difficult to develop through on-the-job training within a corporation’s work environment, and will require training support from JA, prefectural governments, and individual corporations.

Conditions needed for successors to set up permanent residence in the community include housing, improved convenience, and employment for spouses. As such, approaches are needed that focus not only on the successor, but also on his or her family. Housing in particular is a crucial point with regard to attracting individuals residing outside of the community to work for these corporations.

Because better conditions for attracting workers, including a corporation’s work environment and support for developing the successor’s abilities, ultimately depend on successor training and constitute “factors for nurturing successors at agricultural production corporations,” consolidated approaches will continue to be necessary. These include collaborations between prefectural governments and individual corporations.

For urban farmers working on sites adjacent to residential areas, not only sales at typical farmers’markets but also other forms of direct sales can be important, depending on their personal circumstances. Mobile farmers’markets are a form of direct sales that involves the following steps : the farmer loads agricultural produce into a truck, travels to more than one site per day, and sells agricultural produce to customers face-to-face. Such mobile farmers’markets are noteworthy, as they can potentially meet the needs of consumers who have limited access to shopping facilities, a growing problem in recent years. Thus far, no study has investigated the efficiency of this practice by farmers in urban areas, the location of sales territories, and the suitable conditions for supporting this practice.

Therefore, in this study, I seek to clarify the suitable conditions for mobile farmers’markets by analyzing sales strategies and the location of sales territories. The subjects of my investigation in 2012 included eight farmers who lived in or adjacent to Urbanization Promotion Areas in Japan (the City Planning Act defines Urbanization Promotion Areas as those urban areas that have already been formed and where urbanization should be implemented preferentially and in a well-planned manner approximately within the next 10 years). As of 2012, six of these farmers continued working in mobile farmers’markets and two did not. These farmers were located in Kanagawa Prefecture.

The following are the sufficient conditions for mobile farmers’markets in urban agriculture.

(1) A farmer travels to several sections within 4.8 kilometers of his/her home, and the total number of households live in these sections is over 14,000.

(2) A farmer travels to many sites in the section where the number of households is 600 or more, household density is above 4,000 households/square kilometers, and the ratio of households with people 65 years and older is 19％ or more.

(3) A farmer travels to several sites where the nearest fruit and vegetable store is more than 400 meters away and the difference in elevation between the site and the store is 10 meters or more.

(4) A farmer travels to many sites (from 40 to 60 places) on certain days of the week, has many customers (from 150 to 240), and achieves a sales turnover of over JPY 13,000 per working hour.

The Certified Farmer System has been the basic support system for farmers since 1993. However, issues including insufficient follow-up in improving the management situation have been prevalent.

The author has continuously examined the possibility of changing this support system into a stratified support system to further improve the management situation even after certification. This stratified support system is a support measure mechanism that is being introduced into certified farming on a step-by-step basis. The contents of the support measures vary depending on the managerial ability or attainment level of the certified farmer. As a basic research in support of establishing a stratified support system, this study aimed to verify the changes in the necessary support systems based on level of managerial ability, sales of agricultural products and years of managerial experience.

The analysis of factor scores and sales by support measures revealed that the managerial ability was proportionally parallel with the necessary support measures. In terms of by-commodity, the growth process of management by land use type was shown to be proportional, while the management by facility type was“ dual-track.” Therefore, the difficulty in deriving linear curves in relation to managerial ability and farm size has been clarified.

Furthermore, the relationship analysis of years of managerial experience and management support measures isolated several groups. One group received management support measures not in accordance with their managerial ability. Another group had a diffusive form of management support measure in relation to their ability factor scores.

In general, when establishing concrete management support measures, there seems to be a need not only respond to the participant’s immediate concern, but to establish a comprehensive plan of the support details, which will lead to improvements in managerial ability.