ABSTRACT
The Agricultural Multifunctionality Payment (AMFP) programme is a governmental initiative subsidizing community activities that support conservation of farming resources (land, water, irrigation systems, etc). This programme works to materialize agricultural multifunctionalities, and yet simultaneously creates potential pressures toward more economically efficient farming structures. In this chapter, based on two case studies of rural communities engaging in the AMFP programme, we analyse why one community directed its interest “inward” and became enthusiastic about caring for its agricultural resources and heritage, whereas the other directed its interest “outward” and became detached from rural resources. In essence, entwined with local conditions and imbued with neoliberal governmentality, AMFP could engender uneven consequences in rural areas across Japan. It can be argued that this contradicts the premise of AMFP that multifunctionalities benefit the whole nation, because uneven commitments, in relation with contrasting assemblages, create uneven performances.
