The purpose of the paper is to analyze the effects of the land improvement project of paddy fields. To measure changes of the consumers' surplus and the producers' surplus, and the reallocation effect of labour forces as the results of the project, I estimate and simulate an econometric model of rice production. The findings are as follows:
(1) The and improvement project reduces the production cost. The consumers' surplus increases, since the consumers, rice price decreases through the price formation formula. Because the price reduction raises consumption, the effect of prooject is more significant than the simply expected effect from the cost reduction.
(2) The internal rate of return (i. r. r.), which is captured by the changes of consumers' surplus and producers' surplus, is nearly 0%. It can be explained that farm sizes are still not large enough to realize all potential effects of the project. However, the i. r. r. of the land improvement project becomes 4.0%, if I take the reallocation effect of labour forces, caused by reduction of working-hours at paddy fields and increased employment in other industries, into account. As a result, I conclude that the i. r. r is nearly as high as the expected rate of return, and that the project is effective from a socio-economic point of view.

View full abstract

In Japan, organic farming has become the center of interest since the latter half of the 1980's. People have spoken their own images of organic farming. In EC and USA, the concept of organic farming is legally defined as “non-chemical”. But, in Japan, the lack of appropriate standards turns out to confuse agricultural markets.
The aims of the paper are as follows:
1) to investigate wide differences of character between the organic farming in TEIKEI and the market-oriented organic farming (The TEIKEI is a grassroot movement of the co-partnership of producers and consumers, which is 20 years old),
2) to give a definition of the organic farming in TEIKEI, and
3) to clarify the limit of the market-oriented organic farming.

View full abstract