[P2] Farming System

[P2-33] A Case Study on Labor Productivity of Paddy Rice Seed Production in Japan

*Nominated for Presentation Awards

^○Mizuho Fujii, Akihiko Kamoshita (Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Japan)

In Japan, paddy rice seeds are mainly produced by seed producing farmers who are designated by prefectures. At present, shortage of successors of seed producing farmers is getting serious due to the heavy labor load and difficulty in acquiring technical skills for seed production. While seed producing farmers have the advantage of higher selling price of seed rice than food rice, more labor is required to meet the quality standard as seeds such as genetic purity, sanitary, high germinability, no contamination with other varieties nor weeds. If the labor load can be reduced and labor productivity can be shown to increase, more new seed farmers can join. The purpose of this study is to clarify the factors behind the differences in labor productivity among farmers. We compared seed production technology among farmers in 3 prefectures; (1) S seed association in Toyama prefecture, which has the largest sales of seeds outside the prefecture in Japan, (2) C seed association in Hokkaido, which has the largest management scale, and (3) T seed association in Gunma prefecture, which purchases seeds outside the prefecture. The working hours for removal of off-type plants and cleaning of machines were long in all the 3 groups. Labor productivity was highest in C seed association in Hokkaido, where the working hours per area for works such as removal of off-type plants, cleaning of machines, and pest control were shortest. Gross profits were highest in S seed association in Toyama because of the higher producer prices of the seeds.