[in Japanese]

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This paper provides a comparison of the conventionalisation process in the Japanese and Australian organic sectors. We examine conventionalisation by assessing the data collected in our case studies of organic farmers in Japan and Australia. We assess the structural characteristics, reasons for farming organically, agro-ecological practices, labour practices, marketing practices, the degree of corporate dependence and the economic characteristics of the surveyed organic farms. In this paper we attempt to contextualize the Japanese and Australian cases within the larger discussion on conventionalisation.

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The situation surrounding the rice industry of Korea since the 1990s can be summarized as follows. In spite of a rice surplus becoming prominent since the late 1980s in Korea, the rice price has continued to increase over the long span. While the influence of large-scale retailers on rice distribution and sales has increased, the rice business of the Agricultural Cooperatives Group in Korea has been suffering considerable deficit. This study uses a a case survey to clarify what has brought about this situation, and considers the desirable direction of the rice business of the Agricultural Cooperatives Group in Korea. The paper summarizes the rice industry and the rice business system of the Agricultural Cooperatives Group in Korea, reports on a case survey on some local agricultural cooperatives, analyzes the rice sales of the large-scale retailers, such as the large-scale mart, and discusses the nature and the desirable direction of the rice business of the Agricultural Cooperatives Group.

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Food safety in China is noticed as a critical issue in recent years. The Green Wholesale Market is one of the Three Green Programs that the Chinese Government instituted to address this issue. This paper investigates the Fuzhou Yafeng vegetable wholesale market to examine the mechanism of green wholesale market and related social changes. The market was recognized as a model of the green market due to its modern institution and good management, including permission-based sales systems, a frequent inspection system which includes pesticide residue levers, a strict disciplinary system, and so on. Due to these systems, the safety of vegetables could be improved and related social systems could be changed. These include increasing the business of the middlemen with those institutions and developing stable business through providing information of the safety to farmers, changing the focus point from cost to quality, establishment of organizations or companies by farmers, increasing business scale and distribution efficiency, and improving the business cooperation between the farmers and the wholesale market. These changes yielded a safe and stable vegetable supply system in Fuzhou province, with a positive trade-off relationship between safety and cost. With the execution of the vegetable market entering permission system, the safety of the green wholesale market was secured from the producing district, and it became clear that the green whole sale market and the agricultural produce permission system both complement relations for the food safety.

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[in Japanese]

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The purpose of this paper is to reveal the measures and issues regarding how food service wholesalers have been working to reduce procurement costs. We have come to the following three findings through literature investigation and case studies. First, concentration of the food service wholesalers industry has not greatly advanced as of 2007. Second, the case company attempted to reduce costs by group formation of wholesalers. Third, nonetheless, 'group formation of wholesalers' has its limitations in achieving economies of scale because, for example, there are a number of similar organizations. Therefore, it is difficult for group formation to yield further effect than it currently does.

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This research focuses on introduction of an attestation system for special cultivation farm products in Uchiko Town and the correspondence direction of the farmers to the system. This system was compared with that of Ehime Prefecture and the differences wers explored. In Uchiko Town, the small-scale individual producer's authorization is being actively promoted. Moreover, it also became clear that there is interaction with the large scale farm-products outlet 'Karari' in Uchiko Town in the shipments. A questionnaire survey of a farmhouse in this system revealed the small-scale production in quantity as well as the contribution to a price being low.

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Free-range chicken production still remains in the rural areas where large chicken meat companies do not secure their chicken meat. The free-range method is originally used to obtain chicken meat as a self-sufficient agricultural product. Thus, there are no standards, regulations or controls for the product and the method because the meat is not viewed as a commodity for sale to others. However, the meat is sold at small markets in rural areas by numbers of small farmers, and this, in fact, causes some problems. Against this background, an indigenous chicken production project was started by the Chiang Mai Research Center of the Department of Livestock Development in 2008, in a northern area that is one of the less developed areas in Thailand. The purpose of this project is to improve agricultural income by introducing chicken rising as a sideline. Indigenous chicken production is different from traditional free-range raising method. This paper focuses on this project and how it works to prevent the problems of free-range chicken production, and concludes by identifying the good and bad aspects of this project, also identifying the possibility of this project as a rural development model that can aid development not only of northern areas but also of other areas.

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This paper aims to prove the effects of avian influenza on the household expenditure in Indonesia using individual data from the household survey (Indonesia Family Life Survey) conducted by RAND corporation, Gadjahmada University and Survey METRE institute in 2007. The results demonstrated that avian influenza has a negative impact on household expenditure in rural Indonesia. In addition, participating in Arisan (rotating credit associations), employment in the non-agriculture sector and raising educational level have a positive impact on household expenditure in Indonesia.

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