Judul: Economic Rent Seeking on the Implementation of Soybean Self-Sufficiency Program in Indonesia
Abstrak: Pemenuhan kebutuhan kedelai masih tergantung pada impor sehingga mendorong pemerintah melakukan upaya peningkatan produksi melalui program swasembada. Program swasembada tersebut dilakukan dengan memberikan perlindungan kepada petani melalui kebijakan yang dikeluarkan. Kebijakan tersebut belum dapat meningkatkan produksi kedelai, bahkan cenderung mengalami penurunan. Keberadaan kelompok tertentu yang memanfaatkan pelaksanaan program swasembada kedelai diduga sebagai penyebabnya. Dugaan ini diperkuat dengan hasil penelitian di negara lain yang menunjukkan bahwa kebijakan pemerintah dimanfaatkan kelompok kepentingan tertentu untuk melakukan perburuan rente ekonomi. Selain itu, secara teoritis menyatakan bahwa perburuan rente ekonomi terjadi salah satunya karena adanya tarif impor. Sementara di Indonesia kebijakan tarif impor merupakan kebijakan yang konsisten dilakukan pemerintah sejak tahun 1974 sampai saat ini. Dengan demikian semakin kuat dugaan bahwa ada kelompok kepentingan tertentu yang telah memanfaatkan program swasembada kedelai di Indonesia. Namun keberadaan kelompok tersebut sampai saat ini masih belum bisa dibuktikan., The fulfillment of soybeans needs is still dependent on imports so the government makes efforts to increase the production of soybeans through self-sufficiency program. The self-sufficiency program was applied by giving a protection to farmers through policies issued. The policy has not been able to increase the production of soybeans, a trend to decrease. The existence of certain groups that take advantage of the implementation of the soybean self-sufficiency program was suspected as the cause. This suspicion was reinforced by the study results of other countries showed that government policies were used certain interest groups to seek economic rent. The theoretically stated that one of the factors that led to the economic rent seeking was an import tariff. In Indonesia, the import tariff policy is the consistent policy of the Government since 1974 to date. Thus the stronger the expectation that there is a specific interest groups who have leveraged soybean self-sufficiency program in Indonesia. However, the existence of the group is still yet to be proven.
Keyword: rent-seeking, economic rent, soybean self-sufficiency, social cost, political weight

Judul: Impact of soybean development policy on performance and soybean consumer and producer welfare in Indonesia
Abstrak: Soybean is one of the major food commodities. It is a food crop that is rich in protein and it has an important role as a plant nutrients protein source that can improve people’s nutrition. Soybean demand that keeps increasing cannot be complied with domestic production, instead of the fact that Indonesia used to be a self-relying soybean country in 1992. However, the production then decreased gradually until 2010, so finally it must be imported greatly. The big amount of imported soybean is enhanced by the change of soybean business, namely the existence of free trade so that there is a lot of imported soybean with reasonable prices. Imported soybean has made farmers reluctant to grow soybean seeds. This is because local soybean is not competitive enough to imported soybean, seen from the viewpoint of price as well as quality. Farmers feel they do not have any incentive for growing soybean, so that their welfare becomes lower, especially when there is no guarantee during the great harvest. The general objective of this research is analyzing impact of soybean development policy on supply, demand changes and soybean consumer and producer welfare in Indonesia. Methods: The survey was conducted on time-series datas between 1981 to 2010. Data were analyzed using a simultaneous equation model and parameter was estimated using the two stage least squares (2SLS) method that applies SAS/ETS (Statistical Analysis System/Econometric Time Series) program Versi 9.1 for Windows. Conclusions: Soybean production in Indonesia is strongly influenced by the price of soybeans at the farm level, prices of production facilities especially urea fertilizers and soybean seeds, labor wage and soybean imports in which these factors are influential through changes in the increase of crop acreage and soybean productivity. Soybean crop area width is very responsive to changes in prices or wages of agricultural labor both in short term and long term while soybean productivity is less responsive to its constituent factors. One of simulation policies was to increase soybean price in producer level at 35 percent, it would stimulate farmers to increase harvested area, soybean production and farmers welfare. Implications of Policies to increase soybean production, the government should formulate policies that will provide benefits to both producers and consumers. Policies that are partially formulated will not benefit both parties, but only one party. To encourage farmers to increase their production, government policies must not only provide a subsidy of production facilities but also give guarantees in price during harvest time because at this time the bargaining power of farmers is very low. Price protection policy is aiming at output price stability that will determine the farmers’ income, which in turn will change their welfare.
Keyword: Price fluctuated, producer welfare, soybean production

Judul: Hydrothermal Synthesis of Biphasic Calcium Posphate
Abstrak: Biphasio calsium phosphate (BCP), which was a mixture of hydroxypatite (HA) and tricalcium phosphate (TCP), was synthesized by hydrothermal method followed by sintering process. Hydroxyapatite was produced by using natural calcium source CaO from hen's eggshell and (NH4)2HPO4 as phosphate souce, other hydroxyapatite sample was produce by using synthetic calcium source Ca(OH) and H3PO4 as phosphate source.
Keyword: