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Using a recent rural farm household survey, the purpose of this paper is to investigate inclusiveness and effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives in Ethiopia.

The study employs a logit model to examine inclusiveness and an endogenous switching regression (ESR) model to evaluate the effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives.

The results show that agricultural cooperatives are less inclusive of land-poor and illiterate households. On the other hand, the estimated results indicate that cooperatives effectively improved agricultural performance and welfare of its member households – i.e. membership in cooperatives increases yield and income by 1.37 quintal/hectare and 1,804 birr, respectively. Moreover, the result shows that marketing cooperatives effectively increased marketed surplus of their members by 34 percent.

The study has important implications regarding the ways to improve the effectiveness and/or inclusiveness of agricultural cooperatives.

While accounting for the collective behavior of cooperatives, this study uses multiple outcome variables in examining the effectiveness of cooperatives in Ethiopia. Furthermore, this paper employs the ESR model and accounts for potential problems in estimating impact using non-experimental data.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo effects of three varieties of Indonesian fermented rice bran (RB) (Inpari 6, Inpari 30 and Inpara 1).

Three types of RB were fermented using Rhizopus oligosporus. The total phenolic content (TPC) was determined using the Folin–Ciocalteau method, and antioxidant activity was analyzed by measuring the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging activity (RSA). For in vivo analyses, one week after acclimatization, stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (n = 4, 12 weeks of age) were divided into two groups and orally administered fermented RB (40 mg/kg body weight) or distilled water as a control after 16 h of fasting. Blood pressure (BP) was measured before and 2, 4 and 6 h after administration with a BP monitor without warming. Six days later, the rats were subject to the same procedure and sacrificed after 6 h of oral administration. Blood was collected and the plasma was separated to measure nitric oxide, glucose and insulin levels.

The highest TPC and RSA of fermented RB were obtained from Inpari 30 after incubation for 72 h (260.33 ± 0.39 mg GAE/100 g dry basis and 83.71 ± 0.61 per cent), respectively. Furthermore, single oral administration of fermented RB improved BP (p < 0.05) and glucose metabolism after 6 h of administration (p < 0.05).

This is the first study to evaluate the effects of fermented RB on improving high BP and glucose profiles by using a spontaneously hypertensive animal model.