Conservation Agriculture Adoption and Its Impact : Evidence from Shiga Prefecture, Japan

Takeshi Fujie
The adoption and diffusion of conservation agriculture, which is as one of the agri-environmental policy measures for addressing regional environmental issues, has become important and widespread worldwide. However, there is little evidence on the determinants of conservation agriculture adoption and diffusion in Japan. This article investigates the farmers' determinants of conservation agriculture adoption in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, and the impacts of conservation agriculture adoption were
more » ... lyzed using propensity score matching. Our results found neighborhood effects in the diffusion process of conservation agriculture. In addition, farmers' attitudes, risk preference and farm size were correlated to the likelihood of conservation agriculture adoption. Our analysis further shows that adopting conservation agriculture significantly induces farmers to raise the willingness to expand their farm size, increase the number of market channels and implement direct marketing. This confirms the potential role of conservation agriculture adoption in improving the efficiency and structure of agriculture.
doi:10.15002/00010805 fatcat:f5wua3blwnes3dgyyxcmxwoftm