India’s food transfer program has supplied basic commodities to a large percentage of the population. This program has experienced several reforms regarding the coverage of beneficiaries, entitlement or availability of distributable foodgrains, or size of consumer subsidies. This study asseses the impacts of the revision of the distributed price of rice on food consumption and nutrition in Andhra Pradesh, a southern state in India, in November 2011.This research used two rounds of large-sample nationwide household survey data. Since this rice price revision was made in the middle of the latter survey round of these survey data, from two rupees to one rupee per kilogram, this event allows us to determine the impact of this additional food subsidy on the nutrition or food consumption of beneficiaries in a quasi-experimental manner. To this end, this study adopted the triple difference approach based on the falsification effect on non-beneficiaries. The results showed that an additional support for rice price did not change food consumption or nutrition intake.

　The objective of this study is to investigate the reaction of the egg food system to HPAI in the United States. Using USDA statistics and periodical publications, the course of the 2022 HPAI outbreak and how the differences from the Japanese egg food system affected shell egg price movement are examined. The main findings are as follows: 1) in-line facilities of egg products were severely hit and should be included in the shell egg market analysis. 2) extending life cycle of laying hens initially mitigated the price hike partially but later had an adverse effect on inventory.

The rapid development of information technology has been instrumental in driving the rise of live e-commerce and modernizing rural livelihoods. This study examines the factors influencing farmers’ participation in live e-commerce using survey data from 295 households in Wuchang County, Heilongjiang Province. Ordered logistic models reveal that personal characteristics (age, gender, education, household size and cropland area), infrastructure (broadband access and transportation), cognitive states (individual adaptability and external digital environment), and social environment (community attitudes and promotional advertising) significantly affect farmers’ participation in live e-commerce.

This study aims to explore the role of local community-led initiatives embedded with development-oriented values, norms and members’ mindset in the reduction of monetary and non-monetary deprivations using primary data collected from 200 households in Northwest Ethiopia. The results highlighted that, despite enduring numerous challenges (social exclusion, displacement, and extreme poverty) spanning a generation, a community called Awra Amba demonstrates resilience by adapting its unique community development principles (golden rule, children’s right, gender equality, the value of work and solidarity) and diversifying economic activities. About 98% of members exhibit a growth mindset, with only 4% of households below the ＄2.15/day poverty line, compared to 27% in the control group. A significant difference in all non-monetary indicators except housing was also observed. However, further comprehensive research that addresses the complex interplay between poverty, mindset and other factors remains important.

This study examines the impact of abolishing the compulsory rice insurance scheme on rice production in Japan. We constructed a prefecture-level panel dataset from 2010 to 2020 including weather data as control variables. Given that the policy changes are exogenous, we used a difference-in-differences model with prefectural fixed effects. The results indicate that farmers’ labor input intensity increased significantly after the abolition of compulsory insurance and the introduction of voluntary insurance, while the intensity of fertilizer use and rice yield did not change significantly. This suggests that the reform of rice insurance has mitigated the moral hazard problem.

This paper introduces a case study that has started inbound promotion for over several decades and started focusing on Muslim tourism from Malaysia and Indonesia since the last decade. Hakuba-Goryu, one of famous ski resort areas, takes advantage of opportunities to receive Muslim visitors and understand the hospitalities in association with external actors to introduce foreign group visitors to Japan’s international exchange program. With the experience of Muslim-friendly practices, they receive individual Muslim tourists and develop their unique content for diverse visitors with creative tourism content. Hakuba Goryu additionally has spotlighted local residents from high schools, daycare centers and homestay/accommodation entities, and utilized them based on its practices as diverse local human resources.

The 2024 Journal Article Prize of the Agricultural Economics Society of Japan was awarded to the following article published in Volume 95 of Nogyo Keizai Kenkyu (the Journal of Rural Economics). Since the award-winning article is published in Japanese, the English abstract of the paper, together with bibliographic information is included in this volume of the Japanese Journal of Agricultural Economics for the sake of publicity.