Electronic markets have become increasingly popular alternatives to traditional market forms over the past few years. This article explaines how electronic marketplace can be used to either create new markets or strengthen existing markets, and provides examples of the impact that alternative electronic commerce applications can have on firm competitiveness and market structure. The central claim of this article is that it is neccesary to analyze the impact of electronic market implementation on search costs, coordination costs and settlement costs in order to understand their impact on firms and markets. The article analyze several electronic market applications from the perspective of transaction costs, and presents general types of economic benefits that result from electronic market adoption. Social and organizational barriers to successful adoption of electronic markets are also discussed.

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Nitrogen flow through a typical dairy farm (40 heads in milk; 25 heifers and 6 ha for forage production) in southern Japan was investigated during a year from October 1994, in relation to nitrate pollution of groundwater. Nitrate-N concentration of the well-water (approx. 70 m deep) on the farm exceed 10 ppm in May 1994 and gradually rose to 11.5 ppm after two years. Annual total nitrogen supply for cattle was 7,326 kg, of which only 26% was derived from on-farm forage production, with the remaining 74% obtained from purchased feed. Of the total N supply, 22% was utilized in animal production (milk, calves, body weight gain and stock replacement), and 71% was estimated to be excreted (all of dung and urine was stored as slurry, and applied to the field twice a year to boost forage production). The amount of nitrogen applied as slurry to the field for forage production was 41% of excreted N (2,110 kg) with the fate of the remaining 59% (3,066kg) being unknown - probably part as leachate to well-water and part as gaseous loss to the and atmosphere. Annual nitrogen uptake by forage plants (Italian ryegrass from autumn to spring; with a corn and sorghum mixtures from spring to autumn) was 2,143 kg, equivalent to 79% of total nitrogen application (450kg N/ha) by slurry and chemical fertilizers. The above results suggest that the nitrogen cycle on this farm acts as an open system, with a substantial amount of nitrogen being lost (either as leachate or a gaseous product) from the system. This is due to the substantial nitrogen input from purchased feed mostly imported from overseas and seems to be partly responsible for the high nitrate-N concentration of the well-water in this farm.

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It was estimated that the real amount of nitrogen load flowing into the rivers and lakes. Nitrogen load of 8.33 × 10⁵ [ty^-1] is generated from food supply and consumption processes in Japan, however, some part of the load is purified in the way to the rivers and lakes. The data compiled by the administration offices are employed in order to estimate the load generated from food production and consumption processes. The real load affecting the environment was estimated from water quality of the relatively large rivers. The ratio of the load flowing into the rivers to generated one is closely related with rainfall. Large rainfall gives higher ratio. The average ratio observed in Japan is 0.49, and the real amount of nitrogen load flowing into the rivers is estimated to be 4.05 × 10⁵ [ty^-1].

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It is important to collect, arrange and conjugate the abundant information on a rice field for the development of business in the paddy farm. Therefore, farm managers need a computer system on field management of paddy farm. But these ready-made or developed computer systems partly treat the information on a rice field and often pose some difficulties about the operability and the price, so they have not been widely accepted. Thus in this research, we developed a computer system on field management of paddy farm using of a mapping system with fundamental drawing function. The contents of its system and the outline of its application is as follows. First, users will make a wide blank map area linked each blank maps which have been made by digitizer in accordance with a farm map. Next, input four kinds of data (land resister, planting resister, growing management resister, resister of partial farm work contract) will be inputted in accordance with a wide area blank map. Then, these data can be used to support a farm manager's decision-making on the following points. 1) It can stimulate effective land use because farm managers can accurately grasp the right of land, rice field attributes and actual land use condition. 2) It can simulate putting together pieces of land recovered from rice to another crop and their rotation method. 3) It can facilitate planning the data of planting and operation because farm managers can accurately check a planting field and area under operation. 4) It can sharply reduce office work because farm managers can automatically calculate the cost of partial farm work contract and a farm rent.

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