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We conducted a hearing investigation on self-support farming in Kosuge village, Kitatsuru District. Yamanashi Prefecture. In this paper, we described the overview of 'subsistence farming' in Motomura and the farming method and life styles of the villagers there in order to understand the problems of mountain villages. In the old days, the villagers here employed four types of farming methods : field-slash-and-burn-forest-meadow. Staple food in this village was taro and grains or coarse cereal gained through slash-and-burn farming. From 1782 to 1788, a great famine occurred. So, in order to prepare against the famine that might occur, Magistrate Kiyoshitayu Nakai (1784-1794) introduced the potato from Nagasaki ; a breed with enough cold resistance. Nowadays, there is more potato cropping than taro, which was originally the staple food of the villagers. After the land tax amendment, there appeared settlements that began to stop slash-and-burn farming and wheat crop, such as Settlement H, where people were able to attain white rice by cultivating and selling amorphophallus konjac. Furthermore, as silkworm breeding attained high profitability, people began to change their style of life from slash-and-burn farming. However, during and after World War II, a time of food shortage, the villagers once again began to use the slash-and-burn method. However, since the 1970s, slash-and-burn fields were transformed into forests of cedar and cypress. This paper focuseson the reasons why slash-and-burn method is rarely up taken in spite of the fact that self-support farming is still popular. Also, the importance of policy support is emphasized in order to make self-support farming profitable for the preservation of cultivated lands.
