Less-favoured-area payments, farmland abandonment and farm size: evidence from hilly and mountainous areas in Japan

A direct payment (DP) scheme for hilly and mountfainous areas has been in place in Japan since 2000. This scheme’s objective is to fill the gap in production costs between these less favourable areas and other agricultural locations and prevent abandoned farmland from increasing. Eligible rural communities decide whether to receive DPs, and half of the DP allocation in communities with DPs is distributed for collaborative community activities, with the remaining half allocated directly to farmers. We apply a difference-in-differences approach to examine the effect of these payments on farmland use. Using a large farm-level panel data set from before and after the payments were initiated, we employ a causal framework of analysis with a treatment group and two alternative control groups. We find that the payments led to a slowdown in the increase of abandoned farmland among surviving farms. Moreover, the payments have a marginal positive effect on the operated farm size of surviving farmers. The results imply that direct payment schemes in less-favoured areas play a key role in maintaining farmland.

日本自2000年起实施针对丘陵与山区的直接支付（DP）制度。该制度旨在弥补此类劣势地区与其他农业区域之间的生产成本差距，并遏制弃耕地面积扩大。符合条件的农村社区自主决定是否接受直接支付；获得直接支付的社区中，半数资金用于社区协作活动，其余半数直接发放给农户。我们采用双重差分法（difference-in-differences approach）分析该支付制度对农地利用的影响。基于支付制度实施前后的大规模农户层面面板数据集，我们构建了包含处理组与两个备选对照组的因果分析框架。研究发现，该支付制度减缓了存续农户的弃耕地增长速度。此外，该制度对存续农户的经营农地规模具有边际正向影响。研究结果表明，针对劣势地区的直接支付制度在农地保护中发挥着关键作用。