This paper attempts to build a conceptual model explaining the development process of Community Business (CB). CBs are expected to play vital roles as providers of public goods and services, and solutions for local problems. Despite growing attention to CBs, existing research has made scant efforts to spell out CB's essential properties and to empirically illuminate management, especially of new entities. Building a general model of CBs' development, integrating their essential properties is beneficial for CBs to prosper. Thus this study, first, identifies from literature CB's four essential properties including voluntary commitment, community-based, non-profit and public engagement, and financial sustainability; second, it builds a hypothetical model in which said essential properties supposedly appear in different stages of CB's development; and third, by employing the abovementioned model, it analyzes five not-for-profit wineries as cases of CB. The case studies demonstrate that all the wineries have gone through four steps in their development including "personal-level," "social-level," "economic-level," and "social-economic-level." It is also observed that voluntary commitment emerges at "personal-level," community-based at "social-level," non-profit and public engagement at "economic-level," and financial sustainability at "social-economic-level." In conclusion, to build sustainable CBs, the expansion of "community orientation" collecting wider support at the "social-economic-level" is critical.

In this study, we estimate the potential electricity volume and solar photovoltaic power generation profitability using abandoned agricultural land in Hokkaido. We assume the introduction of photovoltaic power generation facilities on all abandoned agricultural land in Hokkaido and perform the cost-benefit analysis of the investment for solar photovoltaic power generation facilities under the feed-in tariff scheme. The results show that the return of investment for solar photovoltaic power generation facilities was higher than the total investment cost.

This study was conducted in university farms and was authorized by the Inter-University Collabo­rative Education program for two purposes: first, to clarify the trend of agricultural training in univer­sity farms, and second, to identify the advantages and problems in collaborative education for both stakeholders: host and client universities. The results of the research revealed the following three points. First, the client departments were diversified in agri­cultural fields such as food science and nutri­tion, agriculture, and veterinary medicine. Second, the participation forms were classified into three types: order-made, ready-made, and free-ride. Many university farms largely preferred the order-made type. Third, although the clients’ evaluations were high, their continuous commitment to collabo­rative education may become difficult because of curriculum and financial limitations.

This paper analyzes the effective preservation of the urban agricultural market in Higashi-Osaka city. The following supports to farmers have been effective: (1) Designating local eco-agricultural products as specialty products by focusing on the farming method, and not on the items, (2) Conducting exhaustive explanatory meetings in the area to support applications for eco-agricultural specialty product designated authority, (3) Establishing original products standards according to the local characteristics, and (4) Visualizing premiums on the local products.

The objective of this paper is to develop an approach to quantify agricultural products’ environmental costs at the farm level. There appears to be limited literature related to the cost accounting method in farm management and allocation of the environmental cost in an account. An approach that includes three aspects is designed and a case study in ‘N farm’ (a pseudonym for a farm that operates the complex management of paddy and vegetables) is used as follows. The first step is to introduce an activity-based costing (ABC) simplified version for the costing of farm management, which is based on a time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) measure. The second is to classify agricultural products according to environmental cost by calculating the environ­mental cost of all the operational farm activities for the different agricultural products. The third is to analyze and diagnose the calculation results.

A radish and sweet potato double cropping system is an effective method for reducing growth injury caused by continuous cropping. In addition, this method enables farmers to reduce working hours and production expenses. By using the ridge continuously for radishes in the winter and sweet potato in the summer, farmers can reduce plowing and ridging work before planting sweet potatoes. This paper evaluates economic effects on an upland farm obtained by introducing this cultivation method using a business analysis of a family-run farm in Southern Kyusyu. The results are as follows: (1) Working hours are reduced by 3.3 hours per 10 a compared with the conventional cultivation method. (2) The costs of radish and sweet potato production are reduced by 19,500 yen per 10 a compared with the conventional cultivation method. (3) Farming income increases by 15%.

本稿は，インドネシア稲作部門の費用効率性が改善されることによって，どの程度，競争力が向上するかについて検証することを目的とする．そのために，まず，農業省のPATANASデータを用い，確率的フロンティア関数分析の手法により，主要なコメ生産地域5州における稲作経営の費用非効率性を測定する．さらに，計測された費用非効率性の値と，経営規模など他の関連変数とを，別途推計した国内資源費用比率（Domestic Resource Cost Ratio）に回帰することにより，費用非効率性への影響を推計する．その結果，費用効率性は，経営規模が小さな中部ジャワ，および，東部ジャワにおいて高い一方，これらの地域における国際競争力は低く輸入米と競争できないことが明らかとなった．また，費用非効率性，その他の関連変数とDRCの回帰分析の結果は，中部ジャワ，東部ジャワにおいて，費用非効率性の改善だけでは輸入米と競争可能な水準まで国際競争力を向上させることはできず，規模の拡大が必要であることを示した．以上の分析結果から，経営規模が零細で競争力の弱い中部ジャワや東部ジャワにおける競争力向上のためには，農家の規模拡が不可欠であると結論付けることができるのだが，ジャワの分散零細錯圃制度を考えると，その実現は容易ではないであろう．

This paper explores socioeconomic conditions for rice irrigation from a small reservoir (dugout) based on a case study conducted in northern Ghana. The study delved into customary water use and management of small reservoirs as well as farmers’ scope for and interest in intensifying rice production through reservoir-based irrigation. The study found that customary use of reservoir water was multi-purpose and flexible without coordination among users. An institution for coordinating the use of reservoir water used for rice irrigation is thus required. The results also showed the financial needs for reservoir maintenance, tractor services, and agricultural inputs, which are necessary to intensify rice production but currently limited among local producers. In addition, we examined the potential for tackling these financial constraints through borrowing and use of existing farmer organizations.

The crises linked with community and business in depopulated and ageing villages have been expanding. The aim of the regional symposium was to discuss the sustainability of community and business in hilly and mountainous areas, especially in Kyoto prefecture. Toward this objective, the following three presentations were scheduled in the symposium: (1) Community and community-based business in the hilly and mountainous area of Kyoto prefecture, by Toshio Ito (Kyoto Prefectural office), (2) Roles of co-operatives and thinking through regional markets Sanchoku sakurakome eggs, by Shinsuke Fukunaga (Kyoto consumers’ co-operative society), (3) Roles of community-based tourism businesses and college student village officials in China, by Shinji Takada (Kobe University). Finally, we discussed about the objectives of the work force support policy in Kyoto prefecture, the importance of decision-making system in the villages’ renewal project, and the possibility of community supported agriculture through food consumption based on social justice.