Yoshitaka Fujii

<p>Commuter farming can be defined as farming managed by farmers who do not live in the rural area near the farmland and thus must commute from a more urbanized area. The aims of this study were to examine the potential of commuter farming and to clarify its effects on promoting regional agricultural production infrastructure in a citrus production island area in Japan. The questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews had been conducted on 14 farmers, who are the overall sample of commuter farming in that area. The main conclusions of this study can be summarized as follows. (1) There are several advantages of commuter farming over traditional farming. For example, commuter farmers can enjoy more conveniences in daily life, a better educational environment for their children, greater opportunity to communicate with other farmers during the commute, a more reasonable balance between work and personal life, and fewer conflicts with family members. (2) These advantages can encourage more children from farm households to become carrier farmers and set up their own households in their home towns. (3) The advantages can also make the regional agricultural production infrastructure more stable by increasing the number of farmers and by bringing abandoned land back into production. (4) To encourage commuter farming, some types of public assistance may be needed, such as subsidies for commuting expenses in the short run and for maintaining local infrastructure in the long run.</p>

&lt;p&gt;Achieving economies of scale in rice paddy field production has been a decades-long objective in Japan. Although there have been many studies on Minimum Efficiency Scale (MES) and the merit of farmland agglomeration in rice production, little emphasis has been devoted to the study of organization diseconomies of scale of multi-unit farm operations. The term&#039; unit&#039; in this paper is defined as an undividable unit of fixed inputs such as a set of large machinery. Previous literature suggested that the average cost of non-family farms, such as community-based farms, were higher than that of individual family farms. In agricultural production, moreover, in addition to the organizational structure, seasonality of the production process is highly significant for an efficiency evaluation of multi-unit operations.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our research objective, hence, is to clarify the efficiency difference (level of achievement to the scale economy) between organization types based on organizational management policy. In particular, through a comparison of community-based farms and family-based farm corporations with hired labor, we investigate i) the relation between number of operation units and farm size, ii) the relation between number of units and seasonality, and iii) operational efficiency per unit per day. For this comparative purpose, we calculate a unit efficiency index that includes the number of large machines (combine harvesters and planting machines) per total operating area for each peak season. Our research hypotheses then are i) unit efficiency differs over organizational types (family-based farm corporations are more efficient), ii) the number of units decrease by the length of operating season duration, and iii) operational efficiency per unit per day is not different by organizational type.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Interview surveys with nine rice farming corporations, including five community-based farm corporations, with between 30 and 240 hectares of operational farmland were conducted by the authors from January to March 2014. The survey focused on the organizational structure, enterprises, peak season duration, and formation of units. In depth analysis of operation management is conducted for the most unit efficient farm in order to find out its determinant condition.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Through this comparative investigation, we confirmed higher unit efficiency of the family-based corporations with employment compared to the community-based corporations (hypothesis i). Second, no clear relation was observed between operating duration of each peak season and the number of units per area (hypothesis ii). Third, operational efficiency is not considerably different either by farm size or by organizational type except for superiority in autumn machinery efficiency achieved by family-based corporations (hypothesis iii). One of the family-based corporations achieves highest unit efficiency based on minimum machinery ownership, simple coordination of operation and flexible family labor inputs in the peak season in spite of less favorable farm land conditions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In conclusion, lower unit efficiency is likely to be achieved by family-based corporations rather than community-based ones even though the latter has advantages in acquiring tenanted land, community labor and government support. The current unit efficiency difference in large scale rice production, therefore, is determined largely by management policy based more on organizational structure than on seasonality and land conditions.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This study was conducted with the aim of examining the present condition of employee turnover based on the case analysis of large-scale paddy field farms. The results of the survey indicated that employee turnover of large-scale paddy field farms is very high and has become an important subject for their proprietors. The next match is needed to address these problems. In the adoption stage, it is important to promote under­standing to work of large-scale paddy field farms of a getting a job person. In the upbringing stage, it is important to plan for proper communication between the proprietor and the employees.&lt;/p&gt;

Small farm size and high production costs pose major problems for Japanese rice cropping. We used the Farming-systems Analysis and Planning System database (FAPS-DB) to estimate the effect of improving farmers' skills and the effect of scale on the production costs of large-scale rice farming. At a scale of 150 ha, the cost per unit of production decreased to around 88% of those at a scale of 50 ha. In simulation analyses in which all operators are either beginners or experts, the cost per unit of production at a scale of 150 ha were 94% of those at a scale of 50 ha in the beginner scenario and 87% in the expert scenario. Thus, increasing experience is effective at decreasing production costs, especially fixed costs and labor costs. At a scale of 150 ha, a higher level of farming skill achieved a greater reduction of production costs. These results suggest that it is important to provide effective agricultural training in order to reduce production costs at the farm and national levels.

In this study, we extracted greenhouse sidewall control rules using a data mining method, based on data of time and the degree of sidewall opening, which is the main environmental management practice in greenhouses used to raise rice seedlings; the data were gathered by using an IC tag system (radio frequency identification). Decision trees were generated using the degree of sidewall opening as the target variable and weather information and growing days of seedlings as explanatory variables; rules satisfying the confidence and support constraints were extracted. Reasonable rules with high confidence and support resulted when the degree of sidewall opening was divided into three degrees. Cross-validation showed 75% correctness. Furthermore, individual rules extracted from decision trees generated using data from different parts of the day (morning, daytime, evening) had higher confidence and support than those based on whole-day data, and cross-validation showed &gt;80% correctness. Multiple regression analysis resulted in a reasonable regression expression with a coefficient of determination of 0.7 and root mean square error of 19%. Precision of the regression was improved by analyzing data separately for of each part of day. Because many of the extracted rules were consistent with the subjective rules of farm laborers who work in the greenhouses, both decision tree analysis and multiple regression analysis had the capability of extracting the logic of workers to some extent.

The succession of agricultural techniques and skills is a critical issue in agricultural business management. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study has investigated systems that support the continuous measurement and visualization of agricultural operation data with the clear intention of addressing this issue. We developed a farming visualization system &quot;FVS-PC Viewer&quot; that continuously monitors various agricultural operation data, including operation content (target materials, machinery, etc.), locations, and status (video images), and integrates and visualizes these data so that operations can be recreated in a simulation. We conducted a field trial using this system, targeting actual machinery operations (rice paddy preparation). The field trial confirmed that our system is able to continuously measure agricultural operation data, such as a worker&#039;s field-of-vision and site images (via two cameras), the operations route (via Geographical Positioning System), and machinery operations (via radiofrequency identification). The data could be synchronized automatically using the recording time as the primary key. Four workers who participated in the field test then trialing the simulated agricultural operation. They reported that entry-level and intermediate-level workers would be able to learn from the system, which includes commentary by experienced workers.

The aim of this study was to identify the characteristics and use of expert know-how in agricultural planning on large-scale paddy field farms and to develop guidelines for cultivating employees&#039; capabilities in corporate farms. This case study was conducted on a corporate farm in Shiga Prefecture. The results indicate that a high level of knowledge and a variety of technical skills are required for agricultural planning. These skills include the ability to manage the knowledge, both general and technical, required to conduct agricultural operations and flexibly deploy knowledge and skills under a variety of circumstances. Furthermore, we found that the skills were primarily based on two types of intellectual management skills that can be broadly categorized as either decided type or predicted type depending on the nature of the decision made. In addition, decision-making requires the technical ability to make use of comprehensive sets of factors relating to knowledge, skills, and data. We also observed a low acquisition rate of management skills in terms of both specific technical and more general intellectual activities among non-experts. Implementation of the following four initiatives could help to improve the cultivation of employee capabilities: (1) systematic organizational methods of formulating semi-tacit knowledge, such as the management of particular types of knowledge; (2) actions to support a better understanding of the overall factors required for decision-making using intellectual management skills; (3) actions to support the employees&#039; ability to predict changes using intellectual management skills; and (4) practical on-the-job training and systematic labor management techniques.

In this paper, we would like to introduce the present condition of large-scale paddy field farms, based on the example of Fukuhara Farm. Fukuhara Farm is a large-scale paddy field farm, consisting of 156 hectares of paddy, located in Hikone City，Shiga Prefecture. On Fukuhara Farm, an important management issue has been the expansion of management area to attain costreduction and stabilization of yield and quality.&lt;br&gt;In order to assess these management subjects, we measured field accumulation of paddy field, the construction of large paddy field sections, and capability cultivation of employees :&lt;br&gt;The main contents of our measure are as follows.&lt;br&gt;1. As to paddy field accumulation and construction of large paddy field sections, a mechanism for having cooperated with the farmhouses of the area and the organs concerned with farmland adjustment was incorporated. And in paddy fields subject to use adjustment, the construction of large paddy field sections which utilized the laser leveling machine etc. is tackled.&lt;br&gt;2. As to capability cultivation of employees, a measure for manifesting the skill and knowledge in farm work is taken and a measure is made for the acquisition and practical use of information by ICT like IC tag and Mobile phone etc.

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate strategies of information management for cultivation of employee capabilities of large-scale paddy field farms based on an understanding of the employees&#039; actual skills and knowledge. With a focus on raising paddy rice seedlings, we explored strategies on the manifestation of essential skills and knowledge and on the acquisition, integration, and visualization of information on farm work, the farm environment, and crop growth. To manifest useful skills for and knowledge of farm work, we found that it is important to characterize farm operations, such as the significances of farm work, targets of farm work, strategies of farm work. Systematic use of appropriate measures of various climatic and cultivation conditions was found to be vital as well. With the newly designed Farm Work Structure Analysis Table, we created a manual that should prove useful in aiding in the transfer and succession of skills and knowledge. Effective adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), such as an IC tag, was demonstrated to be useful in obtaining detailed information on crop growth and other aspects of farming. Systematically arranged technical data integrated with the data gathered on the farming operation was found to be useful in determining farm operations and planning.&lt;br&gt;

The purpose of this study is to analyze the skills and knowledge of the experts managing water inrice farming and to determine how these skills and knowledge can be acquired. The main results of the study are as follows: (1) The skills and knowledge required in the management of water in rice farming are composed of five field 18 items, the content includes a number of items, which exceeds 100 intotal. (2) The acquisition of non-expert skill and knowledge was advanced in general knowledge and motor skills. However, the acquisition for other items is insufficient. Moreover, the different problems regarding the succession of skills and knowledge became clear; (3) we presented the method of attaining the required skills and knowledge on the basis of the survey results.