• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.175-189
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• 1995

Poitical demand for decentralization trends in Korea has led the government to plan to localize its agricultural extension system by changing the status of 6,696 extension personnel stationed at the provincial and county level from central government status to local government status as of January 1997. However, serious drawbacks of lowered morale of extension personnel and the financial burden of local governments has not yet been debated extensively for effective personnel management. Some of the findings that emerged from both the analytical and empirical research show the dangers of decentralization such as an increase in disparities, jeopardizing stability, and undermining efficiency. These problems should be considered along with the culture, tradition, and Koreans' attitude towards central and local government. The dangers of decentralization of agricultural extension services in Korea may cause serious problems in allocative efficiency because of a mismatch between available resources and promised expenditures, and in production efficiency because of unproven cost-effective provisions of local governments. It is accepted that the central government can invest more in technology, research, development, promotion and innovation in the agricultural sector. However, changing the status of extension personnel from central government to local government status may lead the best people to leave, lower morale, shake the sense of public service, break networks, and sacrifice investment in research, development and extension. In deciding the future directions for personnel management of agricultural extension services in Korea, maintaining or reinforcing the existing national status of extension personnel should be considered along with a reflection of the basic characteristics of agricultural extension services, linkages of research and extension, the financial burden of local government, specialization of extension personnel, unnecessary duplication of investment among local governments, possible national supports to agricultural research and development, and extension under the WTO systems.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.923-941
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• 2005

Odor problem of livestock operation is important issue in a local community. I quantified the property price impact of 199 livestock operations for 3,355 housing sales in the U.S (Colorado). Spatial hedonic model was adopted to deal with spatial autocorrelation in housing market. Small beef and dairy operations, which are the traditional agricultural sector, seem to create a positive rural lifestyle amenity effect. However, the impact of livestock operation on rural residential sales turns to negative if the operation is over a certain size and species. Large hog and sheep operation seems to bring fatal economic loss from the local community perspective if it close to residential area. Livestock odor is one of the negative externality, the results provide the potential social cost of the livestock sector in the region. Policy makers may incorporate this social cost in the regional planning to minimize the social and maximize the development effect. Therefore, local officials and private individuals should carefully consider the location and characteristics of new residential properties and livestock operations alike.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.252-260
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• 2011

BACKGROUND: Currently, national biomass inventory are being established for efficient management of the potential energy sources. Among the various types of biomass, agricultural wastes are considered to take the biggest portion of the total annual biomass generated in Korea, implying its importance. However, the currently estimated amount is not reliable because the old reference data are still used to estimate total annual amount of agricultural wastes. METHODS AND RESULTS: Therefore, to provide reliable estimation data, a correct conversion factor obtained by taking into account the current situation is required. For this, the current study was conducted to provide the conversion factors for each representative 8 crop through a field cultivation study. Also conversion factors for 18 crops were calculated using the average amount of each crop produced during 2004 and 2008, subsequently; total amount of agricultural wastes generated in 2009 was estimated using these conversion factors. The total biomass of rice straw and rice husk generated in 2009 were 6.5 and 1.1 million tons, respectively, which consist 75% of the total agricultural based wastes, while the total biomass of pepper shoots and apple pruning twigs were 1.0 and 0.6 million tons, respectively. Despite the high amount of rice-based biomass, their applicability for bio-energy production is low due to conventional utilization of these materials for animal feeds and beds for animal husbandry. In addition to exact estimation of the total biomass, temporal variations in both generated amount and the type of agricultural biomass materials are also important for efficient utilization; fruit pruning twigs (January to March); barley-, been-, and mustard-related waste materials (April to June); rice-related waste (September to October). CONCLUSION(s): Such information provided in this study can be used to establish a master plan for efficient utilization of the agricultural wastes on purpose of bio-energy production.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.146-156
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• 2017

In this study, the causal relationship between the main factors influencing the import of agricultural products and the changes in agricultural imports was investigated. In addition, we compared the magnitude of the impact of each factor on the changes in agricultural imports. It was found that the import liberalization rate, which represents the FTA factors and reflects the per capita GDP, the conditions of supply and demand of agricultural products in exporting countries and the changes in exchange rates, affects the changes of the agricultural products imports. However, the factors affecting the change of the imports by agricultural product category and the magnitude of the influence by each factor were different. This shows that various factors, other than the FTA factors, are compounding the changes in the agricultural imports. In the future, the market openings due to the implementation of the FTA will be further enlarged and the economic territory of the FTA will be further expanded, due to the implementation of additional FTAs, and the changes in the imports of agricultural products will cause damage to the domestic agricultural sector.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.191-198
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• 2022

BACKGROUND: Plants can be grown using a culture medium without soil using a hydroponic system. Crop production by the hydroponic system is likely to increase as a means of solving various problems in the agricultural sector such as aging of rural population and climate change. Different water sources can be used to prepare the culture medium used in the hydroponic system. Therefore, it is necessary to study the effect of different water sources on crop production by the hydroponic system in order to explore the applicability of various water resources. METHODS AND RESULTS: Lettuce was cultivated by the hydroponic system and three different water sources [tap water (TW), bottled water (BW), and groundwater (GW)] were used to compare the effect of water sources on lettuce growth. The three kinds of waters with a nutrient solution (TW-M, BW-M, GW-M) were also used as the media. After the six-week growth period, the lettuce length and weight, the number of leaves, and the contents of chlorophylls and polyphenols were compared among the different media used. The lettuces did not grow in the waters without the nutrient solution. In the media, the lettuce growth and the contents of chlorophylls were affected by the different water sources used to prepare the media, while the contents of polyphenols were not affected. The absorbed amounts of ions by lettuces, especially Ca and Zn ions, and the dry weight of the harvested lettuces showed a strong positive correlation. CONCLUSION(S): Overall, this study shows that different water sources used for growing lettuce in a hydroponic system can affect lettuce growth. Further studies on the enhancement of crop qualities using different water sources may be required in future studies.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.69-82
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• 2023

This study aims to examine the moderating effects of work hours between job stress and quality of life of young farmers. A survey was conducted on 618 young farmers for one month from July 1, 2022. The main analysis results are as follows. First, quality of life and job stress, quality of life and work hours had a negative correlation, and job stress and work hours had a positive correlation. Second, work hours were found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between job stress and quality of life. Third, as a result of identifying the area of significance of work hours, it was found that work hours played a role in moderating the relationship between quality of life and job stress when work hours were longer than 1.327 hours. Fourth, as a result of visualizing the moderating effect by dividing work hours into three groups: high, medium, and low, it was found that even if the level of job stress was the same, the farmers with long work hours perceived their quality of life to be worse than those with shorter work hours. It can be said that in order for young farmers to settle down and live stably in agriculture and rural areas as professionals, it is very important to actively develop and support policies to improve the working environment in the agricultural sector that can secure time to enjoy culture and leisure and relieve job stress.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.318-339
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• 1994

U.S. had given large amount of cotton to Korea as food aid program since 1945. This cotton aid had negative impact on cotton culture in Korean agriculture. Korean government used counterparts funds (sale proceeds of food aid) not for investment to agriculture sector, but for military budgets. And food aid on program type had influenced general economic policies, which neglected agricultural sector too. Anti-agricultural policy which was helped by U.S. food aid, had caused cotton cultivator an economic loss. So this economic loss had made many farmers abandon cotton culture. But in our times, cotton is cultivated for the purpose of domestic consumption in a few rural villages. The purposes of this study are 1) to analyze the process of spatial reduction of cotton culture since 1945 in regional contexts in Korea, and 2) to identify the function and meaning of cotton culture which does not pay off in agricultural region. Materials for acreage of cotton culture are acquired through the agricultural statistical year book(1952-1989) and census. To clarify the meanings of cotton culture, field survey are conducted in a rural village which is identified as only one where cotton was cultivated in 1993. In these contexts, this study has come to the following conclusions. In the period of under the rule of Japanese Imperialism (1910-1945), G. arboreum, species of cotton which was traditionally cultivated since 1364, had been driven out. And G. hirustun species, which is suitable for the production of highly qualified textile, has been hierarchically diffused by policy. In these period, regional structure of Korean agriculture was reorganized for the provision with food to Japan. Crops leading this dependent spatial structure were rice and cotton. So agricultural region, specialized with cotton, were distributed in the hinterland of the area which is specialized with rice. U.S. cotton aid to Korea began in 1947. U.S. took an interest in agricultural export because of her domestic surplus of cotton. Cotton aid is one mechanism by which U.S government developed agricultural market in recipient countries, Specially in the exchange rates, up-valuation of won to the U.S. dollars made domestic cotton more expensive than cotton imported, Production cost of domestic cotton is higher than Government's purchasing price of cotton which was also more expensive than price of cotton imported. Korean farmer could not help abandoning the cultivation of cotton, and this gave rise to spatial reduction of cotton culture. Spatially, cotton culture was abandoned in early stage of reduction in regions where stand at a disadvantage climatically, and in next stage in regions where other up-land crops which paid off in urban market, eg, fruits, could be cultivated. In the stage of extinction, cotton was cultivated only in area where G. hirustun species was originated in Korean peninsula. This region is not only suitable climatically for cotton culture, but is far away from urban market. Use of cotton produced is not for spinning, but for fillings of comforter. The main purpose of cotton culture in rural village is not for cotton yields, but for increase of production of seasame, which is grown together with cotton as mixed crops. Cotton product are used for domestic consumption and sold out to gin house. Though cotton culture is not paid off, farmer wanted to cultivate continuously for the cultural purpose, and they wanted the cotton culture promotion policy with the goverment subsidy.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.257-277
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• 2000

The objectives of this study are to investigate the relationship between the growth of the horticultural sector and horticultural research and extension and to examine the socioeconomic returns to investment on research and extension in Korean horticulture. Data for horticultural production values, producer price indices and research and extension budgets for horticultural sector from 1965 to 1998 are collected from various sources. Multi-variate time series analysis technique with vector auto-regression model and Akino-Hayami Formula were employed for the analysis. This study finds (1) horticultural production responds about seven years later to the horticultural research investment shock. the magnitude of the impacts increases to a peak in seventeen years from the initial expenditures and then declines slowly thereafter until twenty years. and this peak gives a tip that horticultural research impact lasts much longer than grain's or agriculture's: (2) the social surplus from research investment benefits more to the consumer rather than to the horticultural producer: (3) B/C ratios in horticultural research are quite high with the range of 9 to 55 from 1965 to 1998. but these have been decreased since the early 1990s: (4) the socioeconomic returns to horticultural research is quite high with 56 percents of internal rate of return. It remains to be analyzed returns to investment on extension in horticulture because of no statistic significance in this study.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.12
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• pp.955-967
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• 2023

Climate change is expected to amplify the future flooding risks in rural areas which could have devastating implications for the sustainability of the agricultural sector and food security in South Korea. In this study, spatially disaggregated and statistically bias-corrected outputs from three global circulation models (GCMs) archived in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phases 5 and 6 (CMIP5 and 6) were used to project the future climate by 2100 under medium and extreme scenarios. A hydrological model was developed to simulate the flood phenomena at the Shindae experimental site located in the Chungcheongbuk Province, South Korea. Hourly rainfall, inundation depth, and discharge data collected during the two extreme events that occurred in 2021 and 2022 were used to calibrate and validate the hydrological model. Probability analysis of extreme rainfall data suggested a higher likelihood of intense and unprecedented extreme rainfall events, which would be particularly notable during 2051-2100. Consequently, the flooded area under an inundation depth of >700 mm increased by 13-36%, 54-74%, and 71-90% during 2015-2030, 2031-2050, and 2051-2100, respectively. Severe flooding probability was notably higher under extreme CMIP6 scenarios than under their CMIP5 counterparts.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.97-119
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• 1991

Korea has made a rapid economic development since the last three decades. This has helped Korea narrow the gap in health service differences in resource availability and in quality of care. However urban and rural differentials are still remarkable. This study has maintained that health status of rural residents is inferior to that of urban dwellers. Therefore, this study was carried out to develop policy measures for improving health services in rural areas. In order to achieve the objective of this study the authors collaborated closely and made field visits, interviews and conducted an extensive literature review regarding rural health services. The following policy options are recommended as a summary ; First, the quality of rural health personnel is a single most important factor influencing the level of rural health services. An innovative program for public health doctors to the internship and/or residency training program such as specialty board program of family medicine. Second, dissatisfaction regarding employment of public health doctors is problematic. More rational employment and deployment programs are needed to meet their personal desire. One way to do this is to make it wide open and competitive. Third this study shows how to increase physician productivity in the rural public health sector. Incentive system needs to be elaborated for the career development of rural health workers. University linked job opportunity as clinical professor is an example. Fourth, without straightening the function of health centers and subcenters, the future of rural health services is doomed to failure. Straightening primary health care is one way to enrich the program of public health facilities and reactivating the operation of health center/hospital is another. A close linkage of public facilities with private hospitals is a minimum requirement for the operation of health delivery system within a health district. Fifth, some measures are urgently required to enhance hospital services in medically underserved areas. Financial subsidy, tax exemption, long-term public loans and higher priority of health manpower deployment are some of them. Sixth, new health programs should be in tiated to meet changing needs of peoples in rural areas. Home health care program, hospice program, nursing home, residential program for the elderly are recommended.