後進地域における商品化農業の立地問題 (1)

A form of agricultural production which, still remaining at a very low stage of commercailization, aims chiefly, not at the production of marketable crops, but at self-sufficiency, is here called “backward”.<BR>The Tiihoku District, especially East Ô Region in our country shows a marked character of backwardness in agriculture. Taking agriculture in Iwate Prefecture as a typical example of backward state of agriculture in East Ôu. We have attempted in this paper to clarify the geographical Conditions under which the commercialization of agricultural management is enabled. There are our conclusions.<BR>(1). In Iwate prefecture which is far away from any of the greater consuming markets, commercialization of vegetable farming is possible only when the farmers possess more land than is needed for the production of food consumed by their own families. The way in which the dry fields are put use is also relevant. Thus with the trasition of the crop system from one crope a year to three crops in two years, and then, again, to two crops a year, a greater freedom in the choice of crops cultivated can be obtained. It is easy to see that the possibility of commertialization of agriculture is greater in a region where two-crops-a-year system can be adopted for the use of dry fields.<BR>(2). Even when these basic conditions are satisfied, immediate and unconditioned commercialization is not to be expected in a region where agriculture in general is in a backward state, for the commercialization in such a region is restrained by the competition with other advanced regions where the production of marketable crops has long been in practice.<BR>(3). Designating the advanced region of North Kanto as A, the backward agricultural region of Iwate as B, and the still more backward agricultural region around the city of Miyako along Sanriku Coast as C, and using combination of symbols f(x) to show the fluctuation of prices according to the changing amounts of production, We can clearly see in the following 'formula what a change is effected only by the difference of the harvesting seasons in these regions, even if the areas of the land devoted to the vegetable cultvation the a mounts of production and demand, and the time required for the production were the same.<BR>From this it follows that the cultivation of commercial crops in the backward regions without any hope of development on a large scale, is destined to remain in a small scale production system, even when the farmers have much more land than is needed for self-sufficient production.