岩手県における大規模土地改良区の運営に関する経済分析

type:論文

type:Article

基本法農政のもとで、農業経営は労働節約、資本使用的に変化した。土地基盤整備もそれを助長する性格を帯びていた。圃場整備によるトラクターの作業の効率化、灌漑水管理の省力化がその例である。本論の主たる目的は、岩手県における大規模土地改良区の運営実態を通して、土地改良区の抱える問題を明らかにし、今後の土地基盤整備のありかたについて考察することにある。 そのために、岩手県内の北上川流域土地改良区の運営実態を分析し、大規模土地改良区である鹿妻穴堰土地改良区と豊沢川土地改良区の運営上の特徴を比較して、問題の所在を明らかにする。この二改良区の運営には対照的な相違がある。それは、おかれている自然的条件を反映している点もあるが、土地基盤整備政策の受け止め方の相違による点も大きい。土地改良法改正に伴う稲作の社会間接資本整備は、農家の低負担のもとで促進してきたが、現在ではこれを一層充実させるような傾向が見られない。専業的稲作農家が土地基盤整備事業を導入する姿勢が希薄である。今後の日本稲作のありかたを考察するうえで重要な問題のひとつは、基盤整備事業のなどの社会間接資本整備とそれを受容する農業経営のありかたにかかわっている。

With the technological improvement of rice production, characterized by the mechanization of transplanting and harvesting and enlargements of paddy fields that made utilization of tractors more efficient, farm management has been transformed to more labor, first, to make the management of paddy improvement associations clear from the viewpoint of the changing characteristics of the associations as reflected in the revision of the Land Improvement Law in 2001 and, second, to analyze the changes in the farmers' payments to the association. For those objectives, we intend to compare two representative land improvement associations, Kazuma-ana-zeki and Toyosawa-gawa associations, from the viewpoint of management efficiency. Though the area where these associations are in charge is nearly five thousand hectares, the management cost of the Toyosawa-gawa association was twenty-nine billion yen, and that of Kazuma-ana-zeki was only fourteen billion yen in fiscal year 2000. The main reason for such a big difference in management cost is the difference of adopting the pipeline irrigation system. In the Toyosawa-gawa association the rate of use of the pipeline system is 80%, while that in Kazuma-ana-zeki is only 34%. The pipeline system needs more electric pump lifting facilities. The Toyosawa-gawa association is a typical case of active introduction of land improvement with the pipeline system. These activities reduced the farmers' labor input, while increasing the farmers' payments for irrigation water. On the contrary, the Kazuma-ana-zeki association is an example of keeping the farmers' cost payments to the association at a minimum level. Even in the main rice production area in Iwate Prefecture including the two associations, more than 90% of the farmers are part-time farmers. After the acceptance of the World Trade Organization system, MAFF has introduced a new policy of establishing large-scale and economically efficient farmers. Owing to this policy, the cost the farmers bear as a special levy has become extremely low. The cost of the newly introduced land improvement project at the Toyosawa-gawa association is only 310 yen per 10 acres (they formerly needed a cost of more than fifteen thousand yen per 10 acres)

identifier:7

identifier:KJ00004255919