초록
The objective of this study is to suggest the developmental tasks for the successful fostering the Farmer's Study Group which have been guided by the agricultural extension work since 1994 in Korea. The 3,278 farmers study groups with 148,420 memberships have been organized in field of grains, cash crop, horticulture, livestock, improving living conditions, food processing and so on. Although the number of study groups have rapidly expanded, there also are tasks to be secured for their successful development in terms of (a) desirable phase of the study groups and goals of its fostering, (b) managements / administration of them, (c) long-term tasks to be reviewed. With regard to the desirable phase of the study groups and goals of its fostering, they should secure differential mission and the way of works compare to the other farmer's groups. Also, there should be consensus on the proper number of study groups to be fostered with a agricultural technical center at local level. With regard to the managements / administration of the study groups, there should be the different support, assistance and guidance according to the developmental level of the groups. For these, there should be evaluation works on the groups, and guidance manuals for the extension workers. Also extension works should facilitate the establishment of networks among groups over the counties. Finally, to establish the nationwide association in hierarchy and to make the cooperative works with similar farmer's group, doing the value-added activities rather than mere information exchange, and the introduction of capacity building programs for the extension workers are long-term tasks needed to review for the successful fostering study groups.
