This paper intends to survey governmental measures for protection of agriculture in the mountain area, one of the most important task for Japanese agricultural policy after GATT Uruguay Round, focusing especially on Bavaria, Germany.
Since 1975 Germany, as other member countries of EC, has introduced the policy for Less-favored Area(LFA) in order to maintain a minimum level of population and to conserve the countryside. LFA in Germany consists of three categories, at first Mountain Area with high altitude and slope, secondly Less-favored Agricultural Area characterized by land infertility and depopulation, thirdly Small Area with specific handicap for environmental protection. Today the percent of LFA to the total utilized agricultural area is over 50% and that of Mountain Area is only 2%.
In the case of Bavaria, 60% to the total utilized agricultural area is LFA, which includes 6.6% Mountain Area. There are two measures for the income compensation of farmers, LFA policy and the state original program for conserving cultivated landscape (Kulturlandschaftsprogramm: KULAP), both make farmers in Mountain Area get highest income compensation and continue farming. In the case of farmers with alpine pasture in Oberbayern, 46% to the total farm income is covered with income compensation, 20% is out of light business such as rural tourism and forestry.
If we are willing to conserve cultivated landscape in Japanese mountain area, how to encourage farming, forestry and light business should be considered as in Mountain Area in European countries.
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