User Attributes of Allotment Gardens for Rural Residents and the Transition of Former Users toward Home Gardening on Farmland

Urban Farm DB summary

A study of Minowa Town, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, investigating the attributes of allotment garden users and how former users progressed toward independent home vegetable gardening on farmland. Set against an increasing proportion of nonfarmers in the rural population and rising demand for allotment and home vegetable gardens, Minowa Town established an allotment garden with a beginner-level cultivation course and also encourages residents to lease farmland for vegetable gardening. The study found that user attributes were diverse, comprising both landowning nonfarmers and relocators who had newly leased farmland — a combination not reported in earlier studies — and that some former users continued to cultivate their own land or newly leased fields after completing the gardening course. Based on these findings, the study concludes that rural allotment gardens serve a different role from existing urban gardens: providing a place for landowning nonfarmers to learn vegetable cultivation for use on their own fields, and providing relocators an opportunity to acquire farmland and establish home vegetable gardens, suggesting that in rural areas where farmland is relatively accessible, allotment gardens can help expand home gardening within local communities.