Growth and Sustaining Strategies of Urban Agriculture Based on Interaction with Urban Residents: The Case of Kodaira City, Tokyo Metropolis

Abstract

With rapid globalisation and urbanisation, urban agriculture is experiencing many changes, for instance, in the preferences of consumers, who require more food security. In many cities across the world, urban agriculture is also positioned for food production and community building. In Japan, interest in urban agriculture has grown steadily, supported by the enactment of an urban agriculture law in 2015. Urban agriculture studies have been a controversial topic of research since around the 2000s in many academic fields, including geography. However, there have been few studies on the relationship between agricultural management, or farmers, and urban residents, although capturing interactions among urban residents as consumers and intentions for consuming urban agricultural space are critical when considering the sustainability of urban agriculture. Interactions are explored between farms and urban residents in the context of diversified agricultural management based on a case study using Kodaira city in the Tokyo Metropolis. Because the area is one of the urban agricultural areas of the Tokyo Metropolis, where many independent farmers survive, Kodaira city is a suitable study area to explore the diversification of farming and communication with urban residents. Literature, such as previous studies, is analysed. Then, public survey data is analysed to illustrate the spatial distribution of agricultural management patterns and classify them. In addition to qualitative analysis from field research, interviews with case farmers reveal the decision making of farmers in adopting specific methods of agricultural management and interactions with urban residents. Hence, interactions between farmers and urban residents exist based on agricultural management in Kodaira city. The classification of interaction styles is based on features of the area in a definite pattern. Such interaction styles prevent excessive competition among farms, attract stable customers, and realise sustainable management. Finally, urban agriculture in Kodaira city is founded on interactions with urban residents through the diversification of agricultural management.

Overview of the Special Issue: “A Regional Analysis of Strategies for Sustaining and Developing Agriculture in Japan”

“…Here, the basis of agricultural production is the existence of urban residents, who are consumers, living nearby. Iizuka et al (2019) took up a case in Kodaira City, Tokyo, as an urban agricultural area, focusing on exchanges between farmers and urban residents as consumers. He clarified the actual situation of urban agriculture and examined how such exchanges contribute to the sustainability of urban agriculture.…”