Indonesia's cocoa boom : hands-off policy encourages smallholder dynamism

This case study of Sulawesi's cocoa market is a counterpoint to investigations of highly regulated markets - agricultural and otherwise. The Indonesian island's rapid expansion surprised the world cocoa market, especially because it came mostly from smallholders.The authors examine the smallholders'production and marketing systems and the government policies implemented for smallholders to identify any policy lessons that might be useful for other countries. Following is a brief description of what they found: 1) the following factors contributed to the rapid expansion: the availability of suitable land, low production costs, a highly competitive marketing system, relatively good transport infrastructure, favorable macroeconomic policies, and the smallholders'entrepreneurship; 2) until the recent imposition of a value-added tax, Indonesia's government left cocoa marketing and distribution freer of government interventions than many other commodities. Other commodities were affected by direct involvement of the National Logistics Agency, price controls, and exclusive trade licensing requirements; 3) as a result of the competitive cocoa marketing system, the farmgate price of cocoa in Indonesia is about 90 percent of the f.o.b price - a much higher share than cocoa produced in other countries and than other commodities produced in Indonesia. This relatively free marketing and distribution system must be maintained for cocoa to develop further; and 4) some general government policies have benefited the cocoa subsector as well as others. Exchange rates have been kept competitive, such as the absence of export tax and the building of basic infrastructure in the outer islands. Several issues must be addressed for cocoa to be further developed: the quality of cocoa, the adding-up problem (export revenues not increasing in proportion to export quantities), the recently imposed value-added tax, the cocoa pod-borer, export marketing, research, retribution, local repressing, environmental problems, and governmental interventions now being discussed for cocoa sector. Government and industry must also resist the natural temptation for current players to become more conservative, to protect their interests.Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Markets and Market Access,Food&Beverage Industry,Economic Theory&Research,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets,Food&Beverage Industry,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems

サケ科魚類の寄生虫，マスウキブクロセンチュウSalvelinema salmonicolaの新産地

山形県最上川水系小国川の支流である大横川で採集したヤマメOncorhynchus masou masou (Brevoort, 1856)の鰾と，島根県益田川で採集したヤマメの鰾から，マスウキブクロセンチュウ（鱒鰾線虫）Salvelinema salmonicola (Ishii, 1916)を得た。本線虫は両県から初記録である。Specimens of the cystidicolid nematode Salvelinema salmonicola (Ishii, 1916) were collected from the swim bladder of river-resident masu salmon, Oncorhynchus masou masou (Brevoort, 1856), in Yamagata and Shimane prefectures, Honshu, Japan. This nematode is reported herein for the first time from these two prefectures in Japan

The effect of leg hyperthermia using far infrared rays in bedridden subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus

We examined the effect of leg hyperthermia on oxidative stress in bedridden subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus using 15-min sessions of far infrared rays over a two-week period. Four subjects (male 1, female 3) incapacitated by a stroke were recruited for this study. All patients were admitted to Takahashi Central Hospital and ate the same hospital meals. Fasting plasma glucose, HbA1c, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)alpha, free fatty acid, leptin, adiponectin and plasma 8-epi-prostaglandin F2alpha (8-epi-PGF2alpha) levels as a marker of oxidative stress were measured on admission, just before and 2 weeks after local heating of the leg. Results showed that plasma total 8-epi-PGF2alpha levels were decreased significantly while TNFalpha levels were increased significantly. On the other hand, glucose, HbA1c, free fatty acid, leptin and adiponectin levels were not changed during the study period. These results suggest that repeated leg hyperthermia may protect against oxidative stress.</p

Fibroblasts Show More Potential as Target Cells than Keratinocytes in COL7A1 Gene Therapy of Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa

Dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB) is an inherited blistering skin disorder caused by mutations in the type VII collagen gene (COL7A1). Therapeutic introduction of COL7A1 into skin cells holds significant promise for the treatment of DEB. The purpose of this study was to establish an efficient retroviral transfer method for COL7A1 into DEB epidermal keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts, and to determine which gene-transferred cells can most efficiently express collagen VII in the skin. We demonstrated that gene transfer using a combination of G protein of vesicular stomatitis virus-pseudotyped retroviral vector and retronectin introduced COL7A1 into keratinocytes and fibroblasts from a DEB patient with the lack of COL7A1 expression. Real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis of the normal human skin demonstrated that the quantity of COL7A1 expression in the epidermis was significantly higher than that in the dermis. Subsequently, we have produced skin grafts with the gene-transferred or untreated DEB keratinocytes and fibroblasts, and have transplanted them into nude rats. Interestingly, the series of skin graft experiments showed that the gene-transferred fibroblasts supplied higher amount of collagen VII to the new dermal–epidermal junction than the gene-transferred keratinocytes. An ultrastructural study revealed that collagen VII from gene-transferred cells formed proper anchoring fibrils. These results suggest that fibroblasts may be a better gene therapy target of DEB treatment than keratinocytes

RARGE: a large-scale database of RIKEN Arabidopsis resources ranging from transcriptome to phenome

The RIKEN Arabidopsis Genome Encyclopedia (RARGE) database houses information on biological resources ranging from transcriptome to phenome, including RIKEN Arabidopsis full-length (RAFL) complementary DNAs (cDNAs), their promoter regions, Dissociation (Ds) transposon-tagged lines and expression data from microarray experiments. RARGE provides tools for searching by resource code, sequence homology or keyword, and rapid access to detailed information on the resources. We have isolated 245 946 RAFL cDNA clones and collected 11 933 transposon-tagged lines, which are available from the RIKEN Bioresource Center and are stored in RARGE. The RARGE web interface can be accessed at http://rarge.gsc.riken.jp/. Additionally, we report 90 000 new RAFL cDNA clones here

Inhibitory Effect of 1α-Hydroxyvitamin D3 on N-nitrosobis (2-oxopropyl)Amine-induced Cholangiocarcinogenesis in Syrian Hamsters

Sixty-three male 5-week-old Syrian hamsters received the carcinogen N-nitrosobis(2-oxopropyl)amine (BOP) s.c. in 5 weekly injections (the first, 70mg/kg body, and the remaining, 20mg/kg each). The hamsters that received BOP were given intragastric administration of 0.2ml of medium chain triglyceride (MCT) with or without 0.04μg of 1α-hydroxyvitamin D3 [1α(OH)D3] through a feeding tube for 12 weeks. Thus, 3 groups were assigned:Group 1;BOP alone (n＝20), Group 2;BOP＋MCT (n＝18) and Group 3;BOP＋1α(OH)D3 (n＝25). The mean body weight of Group 3 was lower than those of Groups 1 and 2 at the end of the experiment (p＜0.001,Tukey-Kramer HSD test). At the end of week 12, all surviving hamsters were put to sleep. The incidences of liver tumors were 80%, 72% and 32% in Groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The incidence of tumors in Group 3 was significantly lower than in Group 1 and Group 2 (p＜0.05, χ2-test). All tumors were cholangiocarcinoma. These results indicated that BOP-induced cholangiocarcinogenesis was suppressed by the supplemental administration of 1α(OH)D3