Hiroshima University International Education Program (the e-START+ program)

Agile entrepreneurship development program

Introduction to rural development

Niraj Prakash Joshi

Hiroshima University, Japan

January 10, 2024

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Contents

• Conceptualizing the key words

✓ Rural areas
✓ Development
✓ Why rural development?
✓ Resources
✓ Rural development issues with cases

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• International collaborative initiative aimed to guide students onto
agile entrepreneurship
✓ market trends, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67869653
✓ consumer preferences and
✓ emerging technologies

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Rural areas
• What is your understanding on “Rural areas”?
• Isn’t it quite easy?
✓ Countryside and also disadvantaged region – in case of Japan (Inaka - 田舎;
Joukenfuri Chiiki - 条件不利地域)
✓ Village/ countryside - in case of India (Gaun - ग ाँव/ग्र म)

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• What helps you to shape your idea on rural areas?
• In many cases rural areas are defined (Winter & Rushbrook, 2003)
based on
✓ Density of human settlement or the minimum population size
✓ Remoteness from urban centers,
✓ Balance of particular economic sectors and
✓ Patterns of land use

• As cited in USCB (2020), the criteria used in classifying urban is

grouped into three groups
✓ Ecological criteria – Mainly population size/density (the most commonly
used), pattern of land use
o Here the cut-off value for rural-urban divide depends on cultural perception and
resource use intensity

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✓ Economic criteria – primary economic activities
o Primary sector i.e. resource extractive specially agriculture
o Like ecological criteria, culture and the level of economic development defines
the cut-off
o For instance, in more developed countries the proportion may be relatively low
in rural areas due to mechanization and automation
✓ Social criteria – values, behavior and perception of residents
o Education, health, sanitation, utilities and transportation services are often used
as a proxy

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• Alternatively, the administrative division can also serve as a basis in
defining urban, which is the common practice around the world (USCB,
2020)
✓ In Japan, until recent past, ‘Shi’ had been generally considered to represent urban
areas and ‘Gun’ areas to represent rural areas (SBJ, 1996)
o Densely Inhabited Districts (DID), where there is a population density of 4000 or more
per square KM and population of 50000 or more are regarded as urban
o ‘shi’ refers to a municipality that satisfies the following conditions: (Ritchie & Roser,
2019)
1. 50,000 inhabitants or more;
2. 60 per cent or more of the houses located in the main built-up areas;
3. 60 per cent or more of the population (including their dependents) engaged in
manufacturing, trade or other urban type of business

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✓ Municipals as an urban areas and panchayats as rural areas in India
o Statutory places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified
town area committee and places satisfying all of the following three criteria
(Ritchie & Roser, 2019)
1. 5,000 inhabitants or more
2. at least 75 per cent of male working population engaged in non-agricultural
pursuits; and
3. at least 400 inhabitants per square kilometer

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• Other cases of defining rural areas
✓ In Japan -
“Disadvantaged regions” designated by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure,
Transport and Tourism can also be regarded as rural areas (MILT, 2006)
o Isolated islands, remote mountain ringed areas, heavy snowing areas and etc.
✓ In India (DhanalaxmiBank, 2010)
o Planning commission - a settlement with a maximum population of 15000 as rural,
governed through panchayat
o National Sample Survey Office - areas without municipal board, and with a
population density of up to 400 per square KM and a minimum of 75% of male
working population involved in agriculture and allied activities

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This could also be an interesting reading to know more about how to
define rural areas
• Djikstra, L., Hamilton, E., Lall, S., and Wahba, S. (2020) How do we define cities,
towns, and rural areas? Sustainable Cities,
https://blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities/how-do-we-define-cities-towns-
and-rural-areas

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• The common features of rural areas are
✓ Depopulation (aging or feminization)
✓ Low levels of financial and economic bases resulting in low productivity, thereby
low income
✓ Lack of necessary infrastructures
✓ Significant dependence on agricultural production and import
✓ High level of unemployment and underemployment

• Some of the key trends in rural areas around the world

✓ A declinein agriculture and other land-based employment
✓ Exposure to global markets – loosing the competitiveness of rural cottage industry
✓ More women in the workforce

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• Why do we need to delineate the areas into rural and urban?
✓ Prevails different contexts demanding different policies and strategies
✓ Face vulnerabilities particular to their physical and socioeconomic
environments
✓ It is also important across the SDGs (Poverty, food insecurity, poor human
health, illiteracy, etc.)S

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Development
What do you understand?
• Traditionally it was equated with Growth
✓ Achieving sustained rates of growth of income per capita or growth of real
gross national income
✓ Alteration of the structure of production and employment
o Shift from agriculture to manufacturing and services
o Hence, development strategies have focused on rapid industrialization
✓ With the belief that such growth or alteration would either ‘trickle down’ or
create a necessary conditions for the wider distribution of the economic and
social benefits of growth
✓ However, the levels of living of the masses remained unchanged despite high
economic growth
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• Hence, (development) economists redefined the terms to capture
different dimensions of people’s welfare
✓ Reduced poverty, inequality, unemployment and etc.
• Development, therefore, is conceived as a enhancement of human
wellbeing
✓ multidimensional process involving reduction in inequality, eradication of poverty
or hunger, access to quality education, better health, sustainability in resource
use and etc.
• Hence,
✓ Poverty reduction
✓ Meeting basic needs, and
✓ Striving towards environmental sustainability
Are widely accepted three dimensions essential in making progress towards
development
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 21

• Sustainable development remains a key in any development agenda at

present
• Brundtland Report - Agenda 21 - Millennium Development Goals –
Sustainable Development Goals

https://www.conceptaingredients.com/en/un-sustainable-development-goals/
• Several development interventions by government and non-
government organizations to improve
✓ Income (Agri-entrepreneurship, employment generation – cultural tourism,
eco-tourism, cottage industry)
✓ Health status (health and sanitation program)
✓ Education (mid-day meal, oil for female education)
✓ Infrastructure (food for work with the dual objective of employment
generation/securing food and infrastructure development such as rural road,
irrigation canal and etc.
✓ Awareness (women empowerment, social malpractices, etc.)
✓ Quality of life

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Resources
• How do you define resources?
• Indeed, there are several ways resources are defined
• “something that is useful and valuable in the condition in which we find
it. Furthermore, in its raw or unmodified state, it may be input into the
process of producing something of value, or it may enter into the
consumption process directly and thus acquire value” (Randall, 1974)
• Types of resources
Resource Type Stock Flow

Non- ? ?
renewable

Renewable ? ?
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• “…in its raw or unmodified state, it may be input into the process of
producing something of value…”
✓ any assets used to produce goods and services can be regarded as resources

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Why rural development?
• Rural areas are lagging behind in terms of modern concept of ‘development’
• Home for nearly 85% of global MPI poor (Alkire et al., 2014)
• Source of food and labor for urban economy
• Generates most of the important environmental services (biodiversity, water
and air purification, and etc.)
• However, there is an urban bias in the provision of basic infrastructure or
services such as road, electricity, communication and etc.
• Resources and their sustainable use are critical to achieve any sustainable
rural development objectives
• Such objectives and strategies vary across the regions mainly driven by the
geographical settings and the resources they are endowed with

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Rural development issues with cases from Japan
Disadvantaged region

• Definition
✓ “Naturally and geographically disadvantaged regions”
- Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan
o E.g., Snowy areas, isolated islands, mountainous areas, etc.
• Socio-economic features?
✓ Depopulation and aging society
✓ Weak financial and economical base
✓ Low productivity
✓ Lack of necessary infrastructures

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• Depopulation and aging society
✓ The major socio-cultural and economic concern
✓ Increased social security expenses
• The persistent tendency of population outflow to cities from rural
areas
✓ Serious effect on social and economic activities in rural regions
• Depopulation and aging in Kure city is even more severe
✓ Population started declining after 1975
✓ Aging rate – 34.8% in 2019 (Omori, 2019)
✓ Thus, reduction of working-age population is a major issue for Kure

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 Birth rate

• Cause
✓ Natural – low birth rate
✓ Social – Excessing emigration leading to
decline of young people Fertility rate
• Three strategies to deal with this issue
adopted by Kure City government
✓ Improvement of work environment (Work
creation) Source: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.CBRT.IN?end=2020&locations=JP&start=1970

✓ Improvement of parenting
✓ Improvement of living environment (Town
creation)

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https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/04/20/national/crowds-japan-shopping-arcades-coronavirus/
 Table 1. Population and aging rate in
• Within Kure city, aging rate is the highest in different districts of Kure, 2019 (Omori,
2019)
Toyohama, Yutaka, Kamagari, and District Population Aging rate
Shimokamagari districts Chuo 49,966 35.0
Yoshiura 10,111 35.6
• All these districts are part of Tobishima Island Kegoya 4,532 46.1
Chain (Tobishima Kaido) Aga
Hiro
15,259
46,695
36.1
24.9
✓ Tobishima Kaido – a group of seven islands in Nigata 6,280 38.2
Hiroshima extended up to Okamura Island (Ehime) Miyahara 7,156 37.9
Tenno 3,874 36.1
Showa 33,353 33.2
Gohara 4,793 24.8
Shimokamagari 1,406 50.8
Kawajiri 8,284 38.4
Kamagari Yutaka Ondo 11,505 43.4
Shimokamagari
Kurahashi 5,198 51.1
Toyohama Kamagari 1,644 61.8
Yasuura 10,536 39.2
Toyohama 1,323 69.9
Yutaka 1,770 67.4
29 Total 223,685 34.8
Figure 1. Map of Kure city showing the districts with
the highest aging rate (Omori, 2019)
• Tobishima Kaido is experiencing a rapid
depopulation and aging
✓ 20% decline between 2015-2021
✓ Aging rate is 65% in the region
• Hence, attracting migrants in the region is critical
for its survival
• Shimokamagari district
✓ Historically prosperous district
✓ Citrus pocket (now in decline)

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Initiative
Chiiki okoshi kyouryokutai
• A national program initiated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=425249469

and Communications in 2009 with the aim 749490&set=pb.100067933219471.-

2207520000.&type=3

✓ to encourage people from cities to move to and settle in rural areas and
to engage in community activities
• The working conditions for chiiki okoshi kyouryokutai members
are flexible and completely dependent on the region
✓ expected to find local characteristics for branding and distinguish
communities from each other to promote tourism (Misaki, 2022)
✓ Participants are basically encouraged to create their own business
(Caprara, 2020)
o raising fish, opening own business, renovating abandoned houses

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• The chiiki okoshi kyouryokutai program is open for all age
groups and non-Japanese residing in Japan (Eldridge, 2022) https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=425249469
749490&set=pb.100067933219471.-
2207520000.&type=3

✓ Provided with the universal basic income

✓ Can access a fund up to JPY one million for establishing a new or
taking on an existing business
• It is a mix of a relocation initiative, and incubator program, and
a rural Japanese experimentation program (Caprara, 2020)
• There are 6015 chiiki okoshi kyouryokutai members in 1085
participating municipalities across Japan (Eldridge, 2022)
✓ The Ministry wishes to increase the number of participants to 8,000 in
2024
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• Nearly 66% of the total chiiki okoshi kyouryokutai
member remain in the community after completing
their contract (Eldridge, 2022)
https://www.tobishimalife.net/copy-of-home
✓ Starting their own business (Caprara, 2020)
✓ Finding work locally
✓ Take up activities such as farming (Caprara, 2020)
✓ Take over an existing business such as breweries or inns by
renovating them (Caprara, 2020)
• Kure city is also one of the city adopting this program
with few members dispatched in Tobishima Kaido
• However, the achievements for these initiatives falls
short of the target
✓ The situation is even worsening with more people leaving
the region than who are settled in the region
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New way of farming
Farming???
• Main motive is food production
• A crucial role in maintaining the multifunctionality of natural
landscape (MAFF, 2020)

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The loss of farmland
• Japan – an unprecedented increase in the loss of farmland
✓ Contracted from 6.071 million hectares (ha) to 4.830 million ha between 1960
and 2000 (Tabayashi, 2006)
✓ Shrunk further to 4.397 million ha in 2019 (MAFF, 2020)

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Farmland abandonment
• Farmland abandonment is the leading cause for
the loss of farmland in Japan
• Farmland abandonment is a complex process
driven by
✓ The regional environment/characteristics
http://english.agrinews.co.jp/?p=7417
✓ Society
✓ Economy
• Farmland abandonment has always occurred
initially in isolated mountainous areas
✓ Conventional agriculture is difficult to maintain in
such areas

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Farmland abandonment (cont…)
• Depopulation and aging are the critical issues associated
✓ More pronounced in rural/mountainous
• Depopulation and hyper-aging society is driven by (Odagiri, 2011)
✓ Social decrease
✓ Natural decrease
hindered the supply of necessary labor for the effective farming and resulted in
lack of a successor

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Farmland abandonment (cont…)
• Consequently, this has led to loss of competitive advantage in farming
✓ Decline in profitability in farming is the root cause of farmland abandonment in
Japan (Yamashita, 2009)
• This has spread even to the flat rural areas that are relatively accessible
• The concentration of abandoned farmland is the highest in Chugoku
Shikoku region (Su et al., 2018)

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Consequences
• There is a reduction in agricultural production or even collapse of
agriculture sector
• A weakening of the socio-economic condition of farmers in rural
communities
• Besides, the farmland abandonment has posed severe environmental
problems and rural landscape loss

thejapantimes - Issue of
abandoned land slowing rural
development in Japan

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A new development
• A special group of innovative and motivated
youth are attracted to farming in rural areas
✓ Prioritizing environmentally friendly agriculture
creating an innovative market for agriculture
(Rosenberger, 2017)
Takeshi and Atsushi, 2021
✓ Playing a crucial role in realizing the
multifunctionality of agriculture in rural areas
• Newcomer farmers have contributed to expansion of Japanese organic farm
area by 1.41 times between 2010 and 2017 (MAFF, 2020)
✓ Crucial role to play in achieving the target of a nearly 4-fold increase in Japanese
organic farm areas by 2030
• Must attract more newcomer farmers
• There are series of hurdles based on social norms dictating land ownership
and community trust (McGreevy et al., 2019) 40
Overcoming the hurdles/ attracting the newcomers
• Various programs for farmland preservation and
regional revitalization
✓ Forms of tenancy arrangement (The government farmland
banking 2014)
✓ Incentive mechanisms (direct payment systems), and
✓ Educational campaigns to preserve farmland and revitalize
the region (Shoyama et al, 2021)
• Recognized the prospects of agriculture, especially a
new form of agriculture

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References
MILT (2016) An overview of spatial policy in Asian and European countries: India. Tokyo, MILT.
https://www.mlit.go.jp/kokudokeikaku/international/spw/general/india/index_e.html
SBJ (1996) What is a Densely Inhabited District? Statistics Bureau of Japan (SBJ)
https://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/chiri/did/1-1.html
MILT (2006) White paper on land, infrastructure and transport in Japan, 2006. Tokyo, MILT.
DhanalaxmiBank (2010) Rural India: Where is it? Infocus. Kerala, Dhanalaxmi Bank.
https://www.dhanbank.com/pdf/reports/InFocus-December%201,%202010.pdf
USCB (2020) Classification and delineation of urban areas in a census: Select topics in international
censuses. Maryland, United States Census Bureau.
https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/resource-pdf/STIC_urban_rural_delineation.pdf
Winter, M., and Rushbrook, L. (2003) Literature review of the English rural economy. Department of
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), London, England.
Devkota, K. (2018) Chapter 9. Challenges of Inclusive Urbanization in the Face of Political Transition
in Nepal. In J. Mugambwa and MW Katusiimeh (eds.) Handbook of Research on Urban
Governance and Management in the Developing World. Pennsylvania, IGI Global
Ritchie H. and Roser, M. (2019) - “Urbanization” Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved
from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/urbanization’

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どうもありがとうございます
धन्यवाद
Thank you

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