The Japanese government is promoting smart agriculture, which realizes labor-saving and high-quality production by utilizing A.I., robot technology, and ICT. Although there is a certain amount of accumulation in existing research, such as studies clarifying the determinants of the introduction of smart agriculture, there is no research focusing on one important factor, the institution at the prefectural level. In this study, we focus on prefectural institutions （especially, administrative plans and subsidy budgets） related to smart agriculture. To do so, we categorize prefectures by cluster analysis based on the adoption rate of smart agricultural machinery （10 types for different purposes）, analyze the characteristics of each cluster, and then select Fukui and Ibaraki prefectures from the advanced groups of land use and management technologies respectively and finally, comparatively describe the characteristics of the institutions in the two prefectures. As a result of the synthesis of these findings, the authors present a new hypothesis regarding prefectural-level institutions and the adoption of new agricultural technologies.

Given that the impact of climate change on agriculture is a large concern, this paper outlines recent research on the development and diffusion of environmental stress-tolerant rice varieties in south Asia, using submergence-tolerant rice （SUB1） as an example. It also explains research trends on the conservation of landraces and genetic diversity on farmers’ fields, which can serve as sources of useful genes for future breeding. While the diffusion of stress-tolerant varieties contributes to income improvement for the poor in marginal areas, it also leads to the loss of genetic diversity. Since diversity is considered essential for sustainable agricultural production in both developing and developed countries, agrobiodiversity is global public goods, and payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services （PACS） becomes a global concern. It is necessary to evaluate genetic diversity and investigate the impact of human activities through interdisciplinary research.

Given the recent proposal to promote horticultural crops into rice farming in response to declining rice prices and demand, it is important to understand the factors that contribute to the promotion of these crops. Previous studies suggest that the impact of social capital on farming varies with the managers’ attitude, but the impact of social capital on the introduction of horticultural crops and their sales is not clearly defined. Therefore, we conducted a questionnaire survey to determine the impact of social capital on the introduction and sales of horticultural crops in rice farming and the impact of managers’ attitudes on these impacts. The results indicated that social capital has no effect on the introduction of horticultural crops, but has both direct and managers’ attitude-mediated effects on their sales.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the reasons why agricultural corporations decide to dissolve and how the succession of management resources and the liquidation of debts are affected. To this end, cases of dissolution of arable corporations were investigated. The results of the study revealed that in the dissolution process of agricultural corporations, it is important for the relatives to approach the manager and that the manager takes action to encourage succession to relatives and others. It was also suggested that if smooth succession of management resources and liquidation of liabilities can be carried out, the awareness of maintaining the management of the corporation will decrease for the managers who go out of business, and there will be more room for them to choose the method of dissolution.

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between the re-organization of the agreements and efforts to secure human resources under direct payments to farmers in hilly and mountainous areas (DP-FHMA). In Ojiya City, there were re-organizations of the agreements in DP-FHMA in 2017 and 2020. These agreements not only outsourced administrative work but also realized continuous recruitment of new human resources through the outsourcing organization. The foundation of these activities was the relationships that had been established through the past reconstruction from the earthquake. The agreements effectively utilized DP-FHMA and this relationship to solve their issues.

The objective of this study is to elucidate the features of the agricultural land lease market in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region by focusing on social relations and geographical characteristics for farmland transactions. The empirical analysis of the data obtained through the intensive farm management survey for 100 households that curentlly utilize both pastoral and arable land has led to the following results. The arable land lease market is underpinned by social ties based on kinship. However, pastoral land leasing is likely motivated by the efficient use of land through its intensification and consolidation and is not related to social ties. In fact, the contribution of the agricultural land lease market to the intensification and consolidation of farmland was confirmed by a comparison of the Gini coefficients of acreage for institutionally allocated and currently managed farmlands as well as by a GIS-based mapping visualization of the central location of both types of households’ farmlands.

The objective of this study is to clarify the awareness and behavior required of farmers to effectively use labor recruitment apps. The conclusions are as follows. First, farmers are required to set working hours that take into consideration the individual circumstances of job seekers. Second, farmers are required to pay more attention to creating a “friendly workplace,” such as by speaking to each job seeker individually while working or during breaks. Third, to avoid a shortage of job seekers during busy periods, farmers are required to make efforts such as recruiting job seekers in public as much as possible.

The purpose of this study is to consider the dissemination and its factors for the new rice variety “Nijino-Kirameki” in Ibaraki Prefecture. All over Japan not only in Ibaraki, “Koshihikari” is the most famous and cropped rice, but recently that share has been decreasing, In the west part of Ibraki Prefecture, the planted acres of new rice variety “Nijino-Kirameki” are expanding. The first reason is its resistance to the rice stripe virus. That virus is proliferating in the west part and causes a reduction in the rice yield. JA promotes converting the rice variety from “Koshihikari” to “Nijino-kirameki.” JA also tries to buy “Nijino-kirameki” at a high price from farmers, and sells hard not only in domestic but also overseas markets as their sales strategy. For those reasons, farmers are converting their rice variety to “Nijino-Kirameki.”

The objective of this study is to clarify how social farming initiatives contribute to promoting general employment, not limited to people with disabilities, but also including those who are socially withdrawn. Upon categorizing the 10 advanced cases, challenges were identified. For the Participant Burden/Self-Financing model, securing funding due to low profitability was a major issue, while for the Public Support Utilization/Disability Welfare Service model, restrictions imposed by existing system frameworks were highlighted. Furthermore, as factors of success, various innovative aspects were observed, which were found to promote psychological readiness for employment.

This study aims to understand the changes in consumer attitudes toward gene-edited foods from providing information and also to examine the factors affecting the attitudes. We used a generalized ordered logit model to compare the difference in the attitudes before and after watching a video that explains gene-edited foods, and the generalized ordered logit model was estimated. The results indicated that the providing information improved consumers’ evaluation of gene-edited food products. In particular, food values such as naturalness, safety and origin, and knowledge acquisition about the difference between gene-edited technology and genetically modified technology played an important role in determining the improvement of consumers’ evaluation.