With the majority of the world’s population residing in urban areas, particularly in vast suburbs, land use control around the suburbs of large cities is a concern for not only protecting agricultural productivity but also maintaining a decent residential environment. A practical policy measure to address this concern is providing preferential tax treatments to landowners who lease out their farmland, and the Production Green Land (PGL) Act is a typical example, which was extensively revised by the Japanese government in 2018 to conserve farmlands and allow active farmers to use it effectively amid the overall population decrease. Previous studies have extensively focused on identifying factors to encourage persistent agriculture in the urban growing phase. However, the appropriate combinations of specialization, diversification, attributes, and location of farm businesses in the shrinking suburbs, where leasing farmland has become a practical option for farmers. Moreover, multifunctional value is important for ensuring that agriculture continues as a family business. Studies on the attributes of suburban landowners who keep farmland and provide multifunctional value to the community are also limited. Based on the above understanding of the literature, this study explores the specific farm attributes and locations related to the persistence of suburban agriculture. To this end, this study conducts a two-wave survey of suburban farmers, including smallholders in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. The following key findings are observed. First, the continuity of agriculture in the suburbs is significantly related to farmers’ diversification activities in terms of sales channels and provision of services, with specialization within a business type in terms of agricultural operation also being an advantageous factor. Meanwhile, regarding the location, the probability of continuing agriculture is lowest in moderately populated suburbs. Second, landowners engaged in multifunctional agriculture that is linked with the community tend to hold farmland rather than convert it even when they stop or downscale their agricultural activities. Third, regarding the policy implication, the number of exiting and downsizing farmers was larger compared with expanding farmers, in addition to an unbalanced geographical distribution. Based on the findings, the study recommends that multifunctional agriculture through forming relationships with the community should be encouraged, new entrants to agriculture must be promoted, and active farmers who expand farm size need to be supported.

中文翻译：

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人口下降阶段郊区农业与土地所有者行为的持续性——以出租农地税收优惠待遇为例


由于世界上大多数人口居住在城市地区，尤其是广阔的郊区，因此大城市郊区周围的土地使用控制不仅要保护农业生产力，还要保持体面的居住环境。解决这一问题的实用政策措施是向出租农田的土地所有者提供税收优惠待遇，日本政府于 2018 年对《绿地生产法》（PGL） 进行了广泛修订，以保护农田，并允许活跃的农民在总体人口减少的情况下有效利用农田。以前的研究广泛集中在确定鼓励城市发展阶段坚持农业的因素。然而，在不断缩小的郊区，农场企业的专业化、多样化、属性和位置的适当组合，租赁农田已成为农民的实用选择。此外，多功能价值对于确保农业作为家族企业继续发展非常重要。关于保留农田并为社区提供多功能价值的郊区土地所有者的属性的研究也很有限。基于上述对文献的理解，本研究探讨了与郊区农业持续存在相关的具体农场属性和位置。为此，本研究对包括首都圈的小农户在内的郊区农民进行了两波调查。观察到以下主要发现。 首先，郊区农业的连续性与农民在销售渠道和服务提供方面的多样化活动密切相关，农业经营方面的业务类型专业化也是一个有利因素。同时，就位置而言，在人口适中的郊区，继续农业的可能性最低。其次，从事与社区相关的多功能农业的土地所有者往往持有农田，而不是转换农田，即使他们停止或缩小农业活动规模。第三，关于政策影响，与扩大的农民相比，退出和缩小规模的农民数量更多，而且地理分布不平衡。基于研究结果，该研究建议应通过与社区建立关系来鼓励多功能农业，必须促进农业新进入者，并需要支持扩大农场规模的积极农民。