This report focuses on the network organization of direct selling groups of local agricultural products, which become reformulated according to widening the target area of the direct supply system　of school　lunch　ingredients　by　the farmers. It also examines the characteristics of the network organization.
"Midori no Shokuzai Renrakukai" maintains basic multiple direct selling groups in the same area by working together to supply ingredients to kitchen facilities although farmers in different areas sometimes work flexibly to help each other. While farmers are practically involved with the supply system including the adjustment of supply amount, the duties of the each group representative is increasing as he or she acts as a liaison with the different groups. In order to maintain the system, one issue to be solved is decreasing the duties of the representatives.

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Rural in medical care one of most important problems in China since it relates to the health care of over half of China's population. Under such severe circumstances, China's government started to bring new rural cooperative medical care system into effect since the beginning of 21^st century. It had been six crucial years until 2003 for The New Rural Cooperative Medical System (NRCMS) , which has achieved good results. But the system has been encountered lots of problems and need to be continuously improved as an innovative one.
This article analyzes the present situation of the medical security system in the China, which consists of two chapters. The first is to explain the medical system of China in terms of setup, development, promotion and decline from historical point of view. The second is to investigate the implementation and problems of the new rural cooperatives medical system. As most of the farmer does not trust the NRCMS, and safeguard level it seems difficult for the cooperative medical treatment has difficulties to adapt various medical safeguard demands.

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The family income and expenditure survey uses two types of classifying methods to analyze living expenditures-commodity classification (classification according to the commodities purchased irrespective of use) and usage classification (classification according to the purpose of purchase: household consumption or use as gifts). As such, we can obtain the expenditure on gifts by calculating the difference between the relevant data items under commodity classification and under usage classification.
The expenditure on fruits as gifts was confirmed by a time series - the share of the expenditure on fruits as gifts in the total fruit expenditure rose from 9% in 1970 to 17% in 2008. This shows that while household consumption of fruits and (by extension) total fruit purchases by households have been decreasing over the long term, household expenditure on fruits as gifts has remained largely constant. Consequently, the share of the expenditure on fruits as gifts has increased.
Following this, the monthly expenditure on fruits as gifts based on the city was presented. There are gifts based on the city was presented. There are eight cities wherein during some months,the share of the expenditure on fruits as gifts exceeded 50%. Further, the crop yields of the fruits used as gifts are high in these regions.

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Classic Ricardian model indicates that the costs of farming are strongly associated with geographical factors including location, steepness, and fertility of farm land. Accordingly, when outputs price falls down, farm economy located at remote and marginal areas with the higher costs may become unprofitable, possibly leading to the abandonment of farm land.
The objective of this paper is to explore this Ricardian's assertion and analyze the factors affecting the formation of abandoned farm land. Spatial regression model is employed using agricultural census and its map data for Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.
The results of analysis indicate that the major factors of abandoning farm land are its geographical conditions, namely, the distance to city and the steepness of non-paddy fields. The estimation results also suggest that leasing of farm land be one of promising countermeasures to the abandonment problem. The higher rate of leasing farm land is expected to decrease the future abandonment more, thereby allowing for sustaining agricultural activities at remote and marginal areas. Further research is needed to observe the spatial and temporal effects of recent government policy that aims at reducing the abandoned farm land through leasing.

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[in Japanese]

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The purpose of this paper is to clarify the execution situation of the basic cultivation technologies about soybean in the Tohoku region in 1994-2005.
The planted area of the soybean in the Tohoku region in 2008 is 42,700ha, and the production is 61,900ton. The Tohoku region is the main production zone of the soybean in Japan. However, the quality and the yield per 10a of the soybean is low. It is pointed out that the execution of the basic cultivation technologies is insufficient.
The results suggest following points.
At the Tohoku region, the mechanization and large-scale soybean cultivation system have progressed at about 1999.
However, there are problems in long-term maintenance of soil fertility and sustainable cropping system.
Therefore, careful judgment is still necessary to consider that the large-scale soybean cultivation in the Tohoku region was stably established.

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For this study, questionnaires were administered to authorized farmers and to agricultural managers at agricultural corporations. Positive inclination to find successors and present agricultural management conditions were clarified. Recently, people working in agriculture enterprises have become increasingly fewer year by year. Consequently, the upbringing of agricultural successors is important for agricultural management. However, because profits are well known to be low for agricultural management of many kinds, successor upbringing and development are not regarded as important matters by these agricultural managers. Results of this study show a trend by which agricultural managers gradually regard enforcement of management competence, increased agricultural workers, and revenues as important performance criteria. Furthermore, the enforcement of management competence, the increase of agricultural workers, and revenues were shown by multiple regression analysis to be primary goals of agricultural management. Moreover, the competence of agricultural managers is important in the upbringing of successors. The items, methods, and subjects of successor upbringing would become complex if managers regarded successor upbringing as important.

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The purpose of this paper is to review the history of rape blossoms cultivation in Akita prefecture and to clarify issues for increased productivity of rapeseed.
The factor that rape blossoms cultivation spreaded through Akita prefecture is as follows. Firstly, "Akita-nanohana-network" (private organization) performed technical guidance and offered information in cooperation with Akita prefectural university and Akita prefectural office. Such actions encouraged many farmers and municipalities. Secondly, subsides came to be paid for rape blossoms cultivation in many regions.
However, the yields of rapeseed had been low though the oil expression plant was completed at in Akita prefecture.
It is necessary that administrative organs provide technical and financial support continuously so that farmers are able to try to increase yields of rapeseed in cooperation with private sector and universities.

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Although rice powder use has spread, it has not taken root sufficiently that it is used routinely. A questionnaire survey of Shonai area, Yamagata Prefecture consumers assessed the status and outlook for root rice powder consumption.
Results show that rice powder is not used routinely there now. However, statistically significant results suggest the following. High frequencies of cooking and eating are found in homes where the frequency of purchase and consumption of rice powder bread or rice powder noodles or rice powder cakes are high.
These results suggest that rice powder consumption might take root in the Shonai area if consumers buy and eat rice powder products at convenient locations to satisfy their needs.

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The purpose of this research is to understand how households acquire and use fruits based on qualitative data. The qualitative data was based on results of diary surveys on fruits conducted for one month in summer and one month in autumn by twenty-five households in and around Morioka City, and results of interviews on purchasing criterion for fruits and eating habits. The diary surveys recorded types of acquired by households, how they were acquired, purchase prices, date of use for fruits, consumption settings (opportunities to eat fruits) and other information. For analysis, each　household was placed into either the "large group" or "small group" based on their average individual purchase amounts for fruits. Acquisition, usage and the relationship between the two was tallied for each group.
The analysis shows that for both groups, the number of fruits shows that for both group, the number of fruits acquired as "gifts" increased during the autumn, when many domestic fruit products appear on the market. The quantity of "desserts" purchased was affected by eating habits. The "large group" used fruits in general for desserts and used a large amount of relatively cheap bananas and mandarin oranges for "snacking," while in the "small group," no such disproportionate fruit consumption in particular was shown.

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