環境保全型農業の適正普及度の推定法

Abstract

Commercial farming sometimes requires trade-offs between food production and environmental degradation. Environmentally friendly agriculture puts emphasis on farming practice which protect and improve the wider natural environment. The environmental aspects of agriculture have been discussed only in recent years in Japan whereas this topic has been quite popular since the Second World War in the U.K., Germany, U.S.A. and most other developed countries. In Japan, the adoption of environmentally appropriate practices by farmers relies on financial incentives and encouragement through education. The followings are most important from these points of view : (1) To promoto public education campaigns. (2) To determine the optimum size or scale of the environmentally oriented agriculture in certain geographic areas. The objective of this paper is to discuss the methods one might use to estimate the appropriate size of the environmentally oriented agriculture in certain areas of Japan. The U.K. is the most developed country for the point of view of environmentally oriented agriculture. So, in this paper, comparative analyses between the U. K. and Japan are emphasized. Many experiences to balance production and environmental objectives in the U.K. during the past two to three decades are reviewed. The paper's conclusion is that Capability Analysis is best suited for estimation of the appropriate size of the environmentally oriented agriculture in a certain area in Japan. In contrast, Benefit-Cost Analisis, Goal Achievement Method, and Capability Analysis are all very popular in the U.K..