No abstract

While farmers sell their crops, middlemen provide a linkage between them, markets and buyers. Middlemen have good knowledge of working conditions of markets and have access to agricultural market information. Due to poor access to markets and agricultural market information by smallholders, there is a feeling that middlemen benefit more while farmers sell their crops. Good access to markets and market information may help farmers bypass middlemen while selling crops and thus benefit more. Thus, it is best to improve the informational capabilities (ICs) of farmers in agricultural marketing. Thus, this research measured ICs of farmers accessing market information, through a program NINAYO, while selling their crops. The research utilized the informational, psychological, social, and economic dimensions of the empowerment framework in identifying capability indicators to formulate survey questions. Data were collected from smallholders in six regions in Tanzania. The analysis utilized measures of life satisfaction and results showed that about half of the variation in the dependent variable, satisfaction with capabilities, was explained by the model. Backward elimination analysis confirmed that life satisfaction is multidimensional. Robustness test confirmed a positive relationship between satisfaction and capabilities. Overall, results confirmed ICs are multidimensions, their improvement empowers farmers in agricultural marketing.

Making markets work for the poor in rural communities involves different stakeholders. Management, development partners, private sector and NGOs are accustomed to ensure enabling infrastructure is provided. Access to markets requires good transport and low transaction cost accompanied with recent market information. To provide market information to rural community, stakeholders may initiate the program by providing funds and finding the means of ensuring the sustainability of the program. Delivering market information requires established ICT infrastructure and capable staffing. Thus, a framework to access agricultural market information requires management to provide infrastructure and funding, and also to ensure rural areas are equipped with the technology.

The population is aging because lifespans have continued to increase due to developments in modern medical science. The economic activity and health of the elderly are very important factors with reference to the problems of the aged. This cross-sectional study examined the association between the economic activity and health of the elderly. Subjects included 4226 elderly aged over 65 years among the adults who participated in the Fifth Korean National Longitudinal Study on Aging (KLoSA). Basic analysis, cross-analysis, binary logistic regression analysis, and multiple regression analysis were performed to fulfill each research purpose. Male subjects were influenced more by the factors that affect the subjective health of the elderly than females were. Further, subjective health influenced economic activity more than socio-demographic characteristics and health behavior did. Specifically, among the male subjects, the health condition of salaried, self-employed, and unpaid family workers was better as compared to recipients of national health insurance and private health insurance, and unemployed subjects. Preparing for a super-aged society is a worldwide issue. The elderly represent a social participation class that should not be neglected. Therefore, it is necessary to support health promotion policies and increase institutional improvement by reflecting the level of economic activity of the elderly.

Korea worker is well known for its long work and amongst employees and to change un-healthy lifestyle. This study aims to investigate the association between health behaviors and sleep problems in employees. It employed data from the Third Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS). The total number of individuals included in the analysis was 34,788 employees, from the 2011 survey. The outcome was sleep problems, which had a prevalence rate of 2.5% in men and 2.3% in women. An adjusted odds ratios were as follows: 2.26(1.75-2.91) for hypertension, 2.21(1.60-3.06) for obesity, 26.82(21.51-33.45) for depression and 2.02(1.64-2.49) for high level of job stress. We need to invest to identify relevant and various health service promotion for sleep problem that un-healthy workers want will use.