The structural changes of the agriculture, forestry and fishery in Osaka was studied by the method of interindustry analysis. The weight of their sectors in the regional economy was reduced from 0.8% to 0.2% for 20 years since 1960. Their structure of demand belonged to the so-called intermidiate demand type which has the relatively more intermidiate demand than final demand but the rate of intermediate demand was declining. The self-sufficiency rate of their sectors also continued to decrease. The characteristics of the change in the structure of input were the decrease of the input to self-sectors and the increase of the input to the manufacturing industries and the distribution industries. This trend was considered to be one of the main structural changes in the agriculture, forestry and fishery in urban areas. And the influence over the productive activities in all sectors, which can be estimated by the inverse matrix of the input coefficients had the similar trend. The factors which caused the change of the yield were led by the method of Chenery. As a result, the factors of final demand and export contributed to the increase of the yield, but the factors of technology and import caused to decrease the yield.

View full abstract

Just as in the medieval Europe the geocentric theory which was once accepted as an eternal truth and social common idea was completely upset by the new paradigm heliocentric theory and caused a drastic change in their world view through newly born science, so it is pointed out that today again quite a serious “new paradigm shift” is going to take place. This new paradigm shift is said that it will improve not only affairs in the field of science, but further a fundamental conversion related to the “whole human beings”. In this paper, therefore, from the viewpoint of such a new paradigm, I would like to propose freely my opinions on “life”, “nature”, “study and education”, and the like.

View full abstract

A 3-step land evaluation system using Landsat multispectral (MSS) data was proposed for regional assessment of agricultural development in the North Sumatera swamp area. The 3-step system enable to choose any of the steps depending upon the existing data and available image analysis facilities. In the first step, analogue analysis was proposed using Landsat images, when image analysis facilities are not available. In the second step, assuming that no ancillary ground truth data are available, 4 kinds of thematic maps all originating from Landsat MSS data were combined and evaluated using the PATTERN (Planning Assistance Through Technical Evaluation of Relevant Numbers) method. In the third step of the synthesized land evaluation system, thematic maps (500 meter mesh) based on existing ground truth were overlaid with maps originating from Landsat to evaluate the suitability of land for agricultural development using the PATTERN method. Results of the analysis were presented in evaluation maps with 6 suitability classes. These are shown in Photos 2, 3 and 4. Judging from the results, the proposed 3-step land evaluation system using the PATTERN method appears to be useful for land selection for agricultural development in developing countries lacking ground truth data.

View full abstract