Abstract
For any measures of agricultural adaptation to climatic change, it is critical that they be adopted by most farmers in the target region. We investigated farmers’ wide adoption of soil frost control (SFC) measures against the proliferation of volunteer potatoes (VP) due to climate change in the Tokachi region of Hokkaido, Japan, making use of concepts in the diffusion of innovations paradigm. In the initial stage, snowplowing spread as a farmer-invented innovation to suppress VP, but the adopters sometimes encountered undesired outcomes due to insufficient or excessive soil frost. An extension staff brought this problem to the attention of a scientist, who had developed a soil temperature model. With the model, the farmer practice evolved into the SFC technology to attain the optimum soil frost. The technology was implemented in a web-based decision-support system for use by the farmers, which facilitated its wide adoption by farmers across the region. The two critical steps to SFC: the farmer’s invention of snowplowing and the scientist’s development of soil temperature model, were made with no intention for the use to climate change adaptation, instead their use was found on the farmers’ network initially and the network of scientists and extension staffs later.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Fujisawa M, Kobayashi K (2013) Shifting from apple to peach farming in Kazuno, northern Japan: perceptions of and responses to climatic and non-climatic impacts. Reg Environ Chang 13:1211–1222
Fujisawa M, Kobayashi K, Johnston P, New M (2015) What drives farmers to make top-down or bottom-up adaptation to climate change and fluctuations? A comparative study on three cases of apple farming in Japan and South Africa. PLoS One 10(3):e0120563. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120563
Hirota T, Pomeroy JW, Granger RJ, Maule CP (2002) An extension of the force-restore method to estimating soil temperature at depth and evaluation for frozen soils under snow. J Geophys Res 107:4767. https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JD001280
Hirota T, Iwata Y, Hamasaki T, Sameshima R, Hayashi M (2005) Micrometeorological conditions and the thermal and moisture characteristics of seasonally frozen soil in Eastern Hokkaido: new comprehensive hydro-meteorological observation system for atmosphere-snow-frozen soil interaction. J Agric Meteorol 60:673–676
Hirota T, Iwata Y, Hayashi M, Suzuki S, Hamasaki T, Sameshima R, Takayabu I (2006) Decreasing soil-frost depth and its relation to climate change in Tokachi, Hokkaido, Japan. J Meteorol Soc Jpn 84:821–833
Hirota T, Usuki K, Hayashi M, Nemoto M, Iwata Y, Yanai Y, Yazaki T, Inoue S (2011) Soil frost control: agricultural adaptation to climate variability in a cold region of Japan. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 16:791–802
Hirota T, Yazaki T, Usuki K, Hayashi M, Nemoto M, Iwata Y, Yanai Y, Inoue S, Suzuki T, Shirahata M, Kajiyama T, Araki K, Maezuka K (2013) Soil frost control: its application to volunteer potato management in a cold region. In: Imai R, Yoshida M, Matsumoto N (eds) Plant and microbe adaptations to cold in a changing world. Springer, New York, pp 51–61
Hokkaido Government Tokachi General Subprefectural Bureau (2018) 2017 Agriculture in Tokachi. http://www.tokachi.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/ss/num/2017_tokachi.htm/. Accessed 12 Jan 2019
Kato Y (2012) Original machineries supporting the family farming (translation). Nogyo Keieisha, 2012 July:62–63 (in Japanese)
Maezuka K (2008) The volunteer potatoes problems and its managements by snow removal. J Agric Meteorol Hokkaido 60:39–44. (in Japanese)
Rahman A (1980) Biology and control of volunteer potatoes – a review. NZ J Exp Agric 8:313–319
Rogers EM (2003) Diffusion of innovations, 5th edn. Free Press, New York
Shirahata M (2018) The review about volunteer potato. J Agric Meteorol Hokkaido 70:12–21. (in Japanese)
Usuki K (2012) Control of volunteer potato occurrence using freezing behavior of tubers: relations to climate resources. Hokuno 79:180–185. (in Japanese)
Von Hippel E (2005) Democratizing innovation. The MIT Press, Cambridge
Yanai Y, Iwata Y, Hirota T (2017) Optimum soil frost depth to alleviate climate change effects in cold region agriculture. Sci Rep 7:44860. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep44860
Yazaki T, Hirota T (this volume) Controlling the depth of soil frost in farm fields in Japan. In: Iizumi T, Hirata R, Matsuda R (eds) Adaptation to climate change in agriculture. Springer Nature, Singapore
Yazaki T, Hirota T, Iwata Y, Inoue S, Usuki K, Suzuki T, Shirahata M, Iwasaki A, Kajiyama T, Araki K, Takamiya Y, Maezuka K (2013) Effective killing of volunteer potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) tubers by soil frost control using agrometeorological information: an adaptive countermeasure to climate change in a cold region. Agric For Meteorol 182–183:91–100
Acknowledgments
We appreciate the cooperation of the farmers in Tokachi, particularly Mr. Y. Yoshida, Mr. K. Bitou, Mr. M. Kaji, and Mr. H. Fujimori. Our appreciation also goes to Mr. M. Shirahata (formerly at TAEC), Mr. M. Suzuki, Mr. K Araki, Mr. A Iwasaki and Dr. N. Miki of the Hokkaido Research Organization (TAES), and Mr. K. Maezuka, Mr. T. Kaji, Mr. A. Sawasaki, and Mr. T. Taraba of TFAC, for their cooperation. This research was supported by the Project of the NARO Bio-oriented Technology Research Advancement Institution (research program on development of innovative technology [29017C]) and J.S.P.S KAKENHI Grant number 19H00963.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hirota, T., Kobayashi, K. (2019). The Roles of Farmers, Scientists, and Extension Staff in Technology Development for Soil Frost Control as an Adaptation to Climate Change in Tokachi, Hokkaido, Japan. In: Iizumi, T., Hirata, R., Matsuda, R. (eds) Adaptation to Climate Change in Agriculture. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9235-1_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9235-1_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-9234-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-9235-1
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)