A Comparative Study On Agricultural Production Functions In Tokyo And Beijing Metropolitan Areas

Metropolitan areas have undergone a rapid urbanization process with less farmland.Under the background of a shortage of farmland,it is of great significance for both land use and urban life to use farmland reasonably and availably in metropolitan areas,in this case,the temporal and spatial evolution of agricultural production functions presents a certain regularity.As the largest metropolitan area in the world,Tokyo developed rapidly after the Second World War,bringing about remarkable changes in agricultural production functions.As the capital of China,Beijing’s economy has entered a new historical stage of development since the reform and opening up.The effect of Beijing metropolitan area’s economy gradually spread,and its agricultural production functions are in a period of rapid change and generating their own characteristics.The comparative analysis of the evolution of agricultural production functions in the two metropolitan areas will help us to find the commonness of metropolitan agricultural development,while the summary of differences will also be of great importance,which may provide some implications for the moden agricultural planning and agricultural sustainable development of the metropolitan areas in China and other developing countries(particularly in Asia).Based on the data of agricultural production value and agricultural products output in Tokyo metropolitan area(since 1960)and Beijing metropolitan area(since 1978),this paper gives a comparative study on agricultural production functions in Tokyo and Beijing metropolitan areas.Using the normalized data,the agricultural production function coefficient and the variation coefficients of agricultural production function,this paper analyzes the evolution and spatial differences of agricultural production functions in different prefectures of Tokyo and Beijing metropolitan areas,which is followed by the simple quantitative analysis and empirical analysis respectively to explore the main driving factors of the two areas.Finally,this paper summarizes the commonness of the agricultural production functions’ evolution in the two metropolitan areas,analyzes the differences and discusses the possible reasons for them.As for the commonness of the agricultural production functions’ evolution in Tokyo and Beijing metropolitan areas,several results are drawn as follows:(1)Structure of agricultural production value:The production value share of grain falls sharply,the agricultural production value structures of the two areas have changed dramatically with the rapid development of economy,which implies a more modern agricultural structure of Tokyo and Beijing metropolitan areas.There is a turning point in both economic developments of the two metropolitan areas,the agricultural production function coefficient decreases slower after that year,and the structure of agricultural production value enters the high-level period which deviates from the traditional agriculture.(2)The output of agricultural products:The production function of grain is weakened,and the production function of major livestock products such as pork and eggs is strengthened.When the economic development enters into its later phase,the production function of all the agricultural products tend to decline or enters a stable phase in both metropolitan areas.(3)The spatial differences of agricultural production functions:In the process of economic development,both of the two metropolitan areas have formed key counties of agricultural production with some unique features.There exists an obvious circle structure in the evolution of agricultural production functions in the two metropolitan areas,the core areas and its surrounding regions have almost lost their agricultural production functions,which is nearly consistent with Sinclair’s theory;and in rest of the region,the distribution of agricultural production functions is roughly in line with Thunen’s Agricultural Location Theory,however,due to the weakened effect of some factors such as distance,the spatial distribution regularity will gradually diminish.(4)The driving factors:Agricultural input factors are still important factors that affecting the evolution of agricultural production functions in the two metropolitan areas.Besides that,as for the differences of the agricultural production functions’evolution in Tokyo and Beijing metropolitan areas,the different economic basis,the level of economic development,resources endowment,agricultural development mode,policy background and urban regional planning may all contribute to the differences between the evolution of agricultural production functions in different metropolitan areas.In order to promote the development of metropolitan agriculture healthily and orderly,we must appropriately handle the relationship between commonness and individuality in the metropolitan agricultural development.