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Article Excerpt
Introduction
In most-developed countries, the rural space has seen profound changes during the last five decades (Meeus 1995; Ilbery 1998; Marsden 1998; Sylvestre 2002; Johnsen 2004; Lobley and Potter 2004). During this period, modern agriculture has become synonymous with change and instability. These transformations were generated through the interactions of external forces, such as globalization, new international markets for agricultural products, considerable progress in technology, restructuring of governmental policies and internal forces, such as the biophysical characteristics of the region and the attributes of its population (Pan et al. 1999; Paquette and Domon 2001; Smithers et al. 2005). Major trends that have emerged from these changes include an intensification of production, product specialization and diminution of farming units, as well as an increasing influence of urban and non-farming residents in rural regions (Ilbery and Bowler 1998; Paquette and Domon 2003; Smithers et al. 2005).
The rural environment of southern Quebec has also experienced drastic changes during the second half of the twentieth century, which can be summarized through three major events. The first trend is the exodus of the agricultural population (Smith 1984; Morisset 1987), which is accompanied by a decrease in total cultivated areas as well as in the number of operating farms. This event can largely be explained by the increased productivity resulting from technological developments, such as the use of less-costly manures and fertilizers, as well as mechanization, which allowed agricultural production to rise while using less space and, more importantly, fewer farmers (Smith 1984; Domon et al. 1993; Grubler 1994). This increase in productivity, associated with many other factors, such as a considerable expansion of cities, resulted in the abandonment of an impressive quantity of hectares in the agricultural environment, reflected in the landscape through abandoned farm buildings and the increased presence of fallow lands.
The second major event is the increasing specialization of agriculture, strongly promoted by governmental policies. Begun during the 1950s, this specialization trend was intensified during the next two decades by a preference for single-crop productions and within-crop specialization. Three occurrences define this period: the peak in annual dairy production was reached because of stagnating demand, a spectacular increase in cereal demand occurred, and innovations in cultivation methods appeared, such as the use of new machinery and the development of certain cereal hybrids that are better adapted to the climatic conditions of Quebec (Smith 1984; Domon 1990). The combination of these occurrences brought about a decrease in the relative importance of the dairy industry in favor of grain corn production throughout the agricultural zone of Quebec.
The third major event, evident since the 1980s, is the arrival of new residents from the city that has led to significant population increases in many rural areas (Lepine and Brunet 1984; Kayser 1990; Robinson 1990; Douglas 1994; Jean 1997; Paquette and Domon 1999, 2000; Van den Berg and Wintjes 2000). This population of urban origin is composed of vacationers, loyers of country living and seasonal or weekend migrants; part of this population also comprises permanent residents. This event was prompted by new means of communication, but mostly by the recent infatuation with the lifestyle that rural areas can offer (Paquette and Domon 2000).
These events, taken together, have had important repercussions on the rural environment. A major consequence is that this environment is no longer exclusively devoted to agriculture or to the primary sector in general (Brunger et al. 1991; Paquette and Domon 1999, 2000; Bryant and Joseph 2001). Although agriculture dominates the occupied area, many inhabitants derive their income from other activities (Paquette and Domon 2000). Such a situation can be perceived as a great opportunity for development, or it can also be a source of conflict (La Calle Dominguez and Vellasco Arranz 1997). This multiplicity of activities occurring in the rural environment is reflected in the land use and in the structure of the landscape. Indeed, very evident signs of agricultural abandonment co-occur with industrial farms.
Faced with the complexity of these transformations and the numerous research questions that it raises, a series of studies were initiated in the Haut-St-Laurent rural region, located in the south-western edge of Quebec. Some of this research (Domon 1990; Domon et al. 1993; Pan et al. 1999) has revealed that the evolution of land use is strongly associated with the geomorphology and with the topography. In particular, two clear trends were identified. The decades of the 1950s and the 1960s are marked by gains in forested areas on sites located on morainic deposits with high levels of stoniness. Starting in the 1980s, areas under cultivation increased and were mostly concentrated on soils occurring on marine deposits, the installation of drainage infrastructures making agriculture possible.
Following directly in the footsteps of these studies, the objective of the current study is to analyze fluctuations in land values, an important subject in the understanding of rural environments. Agricultural land values are affected by several natural and man-made factors such as climate and soil characteristics, location and distance from urban areas, recreational and scenic amenities (Chicoine 1981; Bastian et al. 2002; Plantinga et al. 2002). An understanding of these influences is useful to various groups of people (landowners, farmers, planners, real estate agents, decision makers) who play a role or are affected by the complex dynamics of this system (Xu et al. 1993; Shi et al. 1997). Among the empirical studies that have been conducted on farmland values is the work done by Xu et al. (1993), who revealed through the application of a hedonic model that individual parcel characteristics, in particular, permanent improvements, are significant factors in determining agricultural land values in Washington State, U.S. Archer and Lonsdale (1997) conducted a study on U.S. farmlands during the 1978-1992 period and showed that site factors such as climate and soils that traditionally were strongly correlated to farmland values are of diminishing importance to the benefit of situational factors such as proximity to large population centres. Similarly, Plantinga et al. (2002) illustrated that agricultural land prices in U.S. are influenced by the potential for future land development. In addition to these factors, Bastian et al. (2002) used a hedonic price model and revealed that the prices of agricultural lands in Wyoming, U.S., were both affected by production attributes and recreational and scenic amenities.
Our research focuses on the agricultural region of Godmanchester in southern Quebec, an area characterized by important changes in landscape development over the last fifty years, and aims at analyzing the influence of geomorphology and land use on land value. The question we wish to ask is the following: have the types of geomorphological deposits that have conditioned the nature of the changes in land use, in the general context of the transformation of Quebec's rural environment, also led to changes in land values? If so, in which direction have these changes occurred? The hypothesis is that land value has fluctuated, during the period studied, in relation to the major events that have marked the rural environment of southern Quebec. The value of land located on marine deposits is hypothesized to have risen, starting in the 1970s, following the installation of drainage infrastructures that allowed the cultivation of cereals on these soils, particularly grain corn. A resurgence in the value of lands located on morainic deposits is hypothesized to have taken place, starting in the 1980s, following the arrival of new ex-urban residents attracted by the possibility of purchasing a farm at a lower price, in order to undertake non-agricultural activities, and by the open, sometimes panoramic vistas offered by these areas with more pronounced topography.
Study area
The municipality of Godmanchester, 138 [km.sup.2] in area, is located in the regional county municipality (RCM) of Haut-St-Laurent at the southwestern edge of Quebec (Figure 1). This RCM is within the humid temperate ecoclimatic region of Canada, with hot summers and mild winters (Ecoregions Working Group 1989). The last glaciation has created a network of moraine ridges and depressions lined with the marine deposits of the Champlain Sea (Pan et al. 2001). These features are a part of the sugar maple-hickory ecosystem (Grandtner 1966) within the Great...
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