Micro Scale Analysis about the Formation of Horticulture in the Eastern Kochi-Plain

Abstract

Today some kinds of vegetables are produced all the year round. Even in winter they are grown and harvested with the aid of hot houses. Because of the fine winter climate, there are many hot houses on the Pacific coast of Japan. Even though Kochi Prefecture was far from the urban market, truck gardening has been practiced there since about 1907. Today, Kochi Prefecture ranks first in Japan in supplying a winter hot house vegetables.The author studied the areal type of vegetable production, especially in hot houses. The farmer who operates a hot house holds a small amount of arable land, about 0.1 to 1.0ha. 50 years ago, many fishing villages changed to horticulture, and there, today, on the sandy beach, hot houses stand side by side. These villages have ranked first in truck farming in Kochi Prefecture since this type of production began. Where the horticulture began earlier, almost all farmers usually engage in hot house production. The hot houses are not so large; each one of which is 1 to 5 are. The unit of co-operative which has been organized for the shipment of vegetables has been small; each co-operative is based on one hamlet.After 1960, some changes have been observed in truck farming of Kochi Prefecture. Above all, oil rubbed paper was rapidly replaced by vinyl film as house cover material. As a result, the truck gardening region has spaced all over the plains of the prefecture. Even far from the coast numerous vinyl houses have been built. In the district where horticulture was recently began to be carried on, we find some new aspects of production in contrast to the older methods of production. For example, a large sized hot house is equipped with automatic oil heater keeping warmth at night, irrigation pipes, and a fan for ventilation. Such a hot house requires from 10 to 20 are of floor space; thus a large amount of capital and skilled man power is also necessary in a hot house production. Therefore every farmer doesn't always operate a big sized house for vegetable growing. Standing on the hills in spring, we can see that the paddy fields are dotted with the big houses. In the newly developed horticultural districts, the agricultural co-operatives have more extensive areas under their control than in the older horticultural districts. In Japan local administrative units have had the tendency to unite with each other since 1954. This has resulted in the smaller co-operatives being incorporated into the bigger ones. By way of example the author has intensively researched into the areal formation of horticulture in Noichi-cho (town). In that town, while the production of vegetables has recently increased, the number of the farmers engaging in tobacco planting, dairying, chicken raising, as well as biannual harvesting of paddy fields has been decreasing. In the hot house of big size such crops as pimientos or peppers, cucumbers, and eggplants are raised. Moreover we can see new practices of growing vegetables using the easier means of keeping warmth, such as small vinyl honses or vinyl tunnels or hot frames or vinyl mulching only. Thus a gynmigit (Japanese; nira), sweet poteto, taro, garlic, kidney bean, celery, and garden asparagus are available for sale in the season when vegetables are scarce. Farmer who operates the large sized house with the heater differs from the farmer who produces the vegetables by lower cost equipment. The former, mostly young men, engage in farming as a regular occupation, while the latter, being old or female workers in many cases, are part-time farmers.Although the farmers in this district choose various kinds of crops and means of production, the region as a whole appears as a densely concentrated area of vegetable production.