Survey on the Attitude of Sweetpea (Lathyrus odoratus L.) Growers in Miyazaki Prefecture towards Production Costs, Farming Operations, and Labor-saving Characteristics

To determine the potential for the breeding of tendril-less sweetpea cut flower cultivars, an awareness survey was conducted among sweetpea farmers from the 97 sweetpea farms in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan, in 2009. The sweetpea farmers included farm managers and their family members. The questions included in the survey pertained to the growing area used, factors responsible for the most significant production management costs, most laborious cultural practices, degree of necessity of tendrils, degree of eagerness to grow tendril-less cultivars, and desirable varietal characteristics. The survey showed that the average growing area for the 46 farm managers who answered this question in the survey was 17.3 a, and the growing area per laborer was 3.2 a. There was a significant positive correlation between the number of laborers and sweetpea-growing area (r = 0.91**). The answers were divided according to 3 attributes pertaining to the farmers and examined. The attributes were: (1) the position of the participant, i.e., farm manager or family member; (2) the kind of labor used on the farm, i.e., family or employed labor; and (3) the size of the sweetpea-growing area. In reply to the question on the factors responsible for the most significant production management costs, the farm managers and family members selected employment costs, the family labor farmers selected the shipping costs, and the employed labor farmers selected the employment costs. The farmers who had a sweetpea growing area smaller than 10 a selected shipping as the most significant production management cost, whereas the farmers who had a sweetpea growing area larger than 10 a selected the employment costs. In response to the question on the most laborious cultural practices, “Yuin,” i.e., training pertaining to removing the tendrils and lateral shoots, and “Tsurusage,” i.e., training pertaining to resetting of the growing point from the top of the supporting net to a lower position in the supporting net, were selected, regardless of the attribute of each farmer. In response to the question on the degree of necessity of tendrils, “either” was selected, regardless of the attribute of each farmer. In response to the question on the degree of eagerness to grow tendril-less cultivars, the farm managers selected the option “add the tendril-less cultivar in candidate cultivars.” This result showed that the farm managers expected that the absence of tendrils in these cultivars would be a labor-savi