A Study on the Evaluation and Improvement of Sustainable Farming Systems in Closed Aquatic Environment of Hachirogata Reclaimed Farmland

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This interdisciplinary research aimed to improve and disseminate sustainable farming systems that would avoid environmental deterioration in the surrounding lake as well as keep high agricultural productivity. As was put in the category "Grant-in-Aid for University and Society Collaboration", this research was conducted in Ogata Village in Akita Prefecture, the largest reclaimed farmland in Japan, in close cooperation with local farmers.The results can be classified into three areas. In the first area related to soil and water sciences, we succeed in building Water Quality Variation Analysis Model which showed (1) that the expansion of sustainable farming systems in Ogata Village would reduce suspended solid (SS) straight in the surrounding lake, (2) that if we divide the farmland into upstream and downstream areas, and provide different water treatment, the water quality would be greatly improved.In the second area related to agronomy, agricultural engineering and agricultural economy, we evaluated material mobility and profitability as to conventional farming, lower-input farming, least till farming and less chemical stockbreeding, soybean-wheat rotation and intensive wheat cropping. Results of a simulation analysis suggest that sustainable farming could be both environmentally and economically sustainable.In the third area related to agricultural economy and sociology, we analyzed social conditions to disseminate such new farming systems. Working on this task with local farmers, we reached an idea that establishing systematic programs to ensure farmers' voluntary participation and steady environmental improvement would be essential. Practically, based on the results of our research, farmers of Ogata Village published the "Declaration of Nature Creation in Farming and Living for the 21^<st> Century Ogata", on June 30, 2002.