The agricultural extension services in Korea have been provided by the Rural Development Administration, a government organization, since 1962. This aims to explore the issues in pluralism of extension worldwide, and to suggest tasks needed to improve public extension in Korea. Based on the review of background, types and issues of pluralism of agricultural extension, the following tasks were suggested for the public extension in Korea; Firstly, need to identify the lessons from the other countries where the pluralism system has been adopted, Secondly, need to compile the inventory about the private extension agencies and to assess their capacities, Thirdly, need to assess the farmers' satisfactory level on the services provided by public and private agencies, and the farmer's willingness to pay, Finally, need to further discussions to promote the partnership between public and private extension agencies.

The study aims to identify the factors affecting business performance of rural tourism operators. For this study, 1,004 questionnaires were collected by field survey of rural tourism operators. The linear multiple regression analysis were used to identify factors affecting performance of rural tourism business. The result indicate that the factors influencing the sales of rural tourism business were in order of owning sales facilities, perception of multi-functional value of agriculture and rural, group promotion, number of rooms, and gender. In the case of gender, it was found that females had a high probability of positively affecting sales. The factors influencing the satisfaction of the rural tourism business were in the order of management strategy, number of days of operation, perception of multi-functional value of agriculture and rural, and business career. In the case of management strategy, it was found that the differentiation strategy have a positively affecting the satisfaction of the rural tourism business. As for the business career, the shorter the career, the higher the probability of positively affecting the satisfaction of the rural tourism business. The results of this study would be useful for establishing strategies to improve the management performance of the rural tourism business.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the location characteristics of the rice paddy fields and to predict shrinking areas of them. The study area is in South Korea nationwide, and a 300×300m raster level is adopted as a spatial analysis unit. The binary logit model and spatial simulation model are employed for the analyses. As a result, population, industry, climate and nature, and accessibility play a significant role in determining rice paddy fields' locations. It is predicted that the shrinking rate will be high in Gangwon-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and Gyeongsangnam-do until 2027. The hot spots are intensively shaped in the inland of Gangwon-do, eastern parts of Gyeonggi-do, and the borders of Gyeongsangnam-do and Jeollabuk-do between Charyeong and Sobaek mountain ranges. Using Gimcheon-si as an example, the study suggests fundamental policy implications for taking advantage of the simulation results from the lens of local agriculture. Several policy measures are proposed for improving management strategies for the rice paddy fields in the long run.

This study aims to explore field cases of social farming programs for the youth's rural in-migration and to suggest the political and practical directions of the initiative of social farming in Korea. Two cases of social farm were selected and one operators and two participants of each farm were interviewed. The results are as follows. First, the participants had a firm priority that social farming is based on farming activities and places, and recognized it as the practice of embracing socially vulnerable groups. Second, the hosts were running their social farms based on their own understanding of social farming, which turns out to show different characteristics of the program. Third, the participants joined the program with the motivation of having an experience of rural life, exploration of career paths, and a need a need of community settlement, restructuring their experiences. Based on these results, the direction of social farming for youth's rural in-migration was suggested.