Farmland conservation in a settlement of hilly and mountainous farming area from the viewpoint of continuity of agricultural labor force

This study will investigate the direction of farmland conservation in a settlement of hilly and mountainous farming area, from the viewpoint of the continuity of farmer's agricultural view and agricultural labor force. The research field was M-settlement, which is a typical settlement of hilly and mountainous farming area, in Yanahara-cho, Kume-gun, Okayama-ken. The first part dealt with land use and possessing structure in the research field. The main results obtained are as follows; 1) The land possessing structure by traditional community unit which is called as“Nou-gumi”, still remaines and it gives marked effects on the present land use. 2) Advantage for cultivation was highly related to the land possessing structure. The second part studies on continuity of agricultural labor force in large-scale farms. The results obtained are as follows; 1) The correlation between land scale and agricultural labor force in each farm was not always clear and unbalanced conditions were sometimes found even in large-scale farms. 2) The abandoned cultivation often occurred due to shortage of labor force in the farmers which had the advantage of land. The third part developed practical plans for land use and conservation through attitude survey for individuals in households, according to the results obtained in the first and the second parts; 1. In order to plan land use and conservation in the future, the traditional community unit which decides the habitants' attitude for agricultural production and living space in the settlement, had to be suggestively considered as the base unit of farmland management and use. 2. Not only land quality but also many conditions such as continuity of agricultural labor force, agreement of thinking way from youth to aged generation in a household, seemed to be necessary due to continue the cultivation.