著者

羽布津 明

出版者

THE TOHOKU GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION

雑誌

東北地理 (ISSN:03872777)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.18, no.4, pp.167-172, 1966 (Released:2010-04-30)

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After the Second World War, Japanese agriculture is confronted with many peoblems such as the modernization, increase of production and profits and so on. Tobacco culture in a village of Fukushlma prefecture is analyzed as an example of commercial agriculture in Japan, especially in an area under rather unfavorable conditions.1) In Hirata, the number of full-time farmers have been increasing, and the acreage of their farms is also increasing, but it is noticeable that they are depending mostly on family labor lately.2) The importance of tobacco in Hirata is growing in cropped acreage and also as a source of income.3) Although tobacco has been raised for many years, the management technic is very backward, and the improvement to tobacco farming has just started since World War II.4) Tobacco is raised in fields in which it is very difficult to mechanize, and present use of family labor is almost at its limit. Therefore, there is little room for the improvement of tobacco farming. Most of the farmers are looking for other cash crops to replace tobacco.