Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/63171

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the agricultural problems of Hokkaido. At present, the process of internationalization is resulting in a surplus of farmland, due to the fall of agricultural profitability. Agricultural managers are being forced to buy farmland, as many managers hesitate to buy farmland and enlarge the scale of agricultural management. Moreover, farms with no successors are increasing. In recent years serious problems have arisen, such as the increase of farmland where crop seed is not planted and which is left without being cultivated. It has become very difficult to continue agricultural management under the cunditions of import liberalizathon and aging labor forces. Extensive agriculture is now turning into intensive agriculture. Flowers and vegetables are introduced as the main crop in many areas. In this situation, the role of local governments should be to promote the use and management of farmland rather than promote liquidization. Each local government should plan reasonable utilization programs of the farmland, and a unified farmland management organization within each rural society should be established, in order to arrange land use promote regional agriculture.