• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.121-136
• /
• 2000

This study reports on a comparison between the Korean diffusion of agricultural innovation or extension service and the cooperative extension service in the United States of America. It focuses on relevant differences between the two systems and provides recommendation for improvement of the Korean system to insure success in important areas related to the diffusion of agricultural innovations. After a comparative study on diffusion of innovations it is clear that: in order to have a productive agriculture that makes effective and efficient use of natural resources and helps achieve sustainability goals, a mechanism that delivers knowledge to agricultural communities must be established and maintained. This mechanism is clearly an agricultural extension service that is cooperatively funded by federal, state and local governments and that insures participation of constituents in the process of establishing priorities and evaluating achievements. The success of US agriculture, the most productive in the world, is to a large degree to the Cooperative Extension Service. Based on the results of this study and the differences of the United States and Korea, the following recommendations should be emphasized for more effective communication for agricultural innovation and rural development in Korea: 1) In order to insure that extension educators are high caliber professional individuals, it is important to establish a system that nationally recognizes these individuals as such, and that provides a professional development path. 2) The results of the decision of transfer of extension educators to local governments has not yielded positive outcomes, especially in terms of professional status. It is clearly demonstrable that valuable professionals are leaving the service, that local governments do not have the will and resources to implement a successful extension program. 3) Because of the critical importance of diffusing innovations to agricultural producers in order to insure and quality and steady food supply, it is of critical importance that these issues be addressed before the extension service is further deteriorated. Given the cement situation, it is clear that the extension service should become nationally supported again in cooperation with local and state governments and that extension professionals be given appropriate rank at the national level, commesurate with their peers in research and teaching. 4) The common current committee practice of lengthy reporting and short discussion needs to be changed to one that results in char, brief and substantive action oriented goals. Joint participation by researchers, extension educators and farmers should be encouraged in planning, implementation and evaluation of communication for agricultural innovations. Roles and functions of committees for institutional cooperation, and or agricultural extension committees should be enlarged. 5) Extension educators should be encouraged to adopt new communication technologies to improve their diffusion of innovations methods. Agricultural institutions and organizations should be encouraged to adopt farmer-first and or client-oriented approach in agricultural extension and diffusion of agricultural technologies. The number, complexity and rapid change of information in agricultural extension require the development of a computer based information and report system to support agricultural extension. 6) To facilitate and expand the further development of communication for agricultural innovation and rural development, agricultural communication programs in universities especially in colleges of agriculture and life sciences. 7) To strengthening the sense of national and social responsibility communication for agricultural innovation and rural development among students in agricultural colleges and universities through participation in learning activities by proactive recruitment. 8) To establish and reinforce a policy that insures participation in communication for agricultural innovation and regal development activities. 9) To improve further development of communication for agricultural innovation and rural development in Korea, more research activities should be encouraged.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2016

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have always mattered in agriculture too. In day-to-day practices of agriculture and allied sectors, the farmers often share their information. Changing weather patterns, soil conditions, pests and diseases always throw challenges to small and marginal farmers. So, the farmer needs up-dated information to cope with and even benefit from these changes. In the developing countries like India, where agriculture still plays a crucial role (over 58% of the rural households depend on agriculture as their livelihood) and the rising population from 1027 million to 1419 million during 2001-16 (a total rise of 38 percent or 1.3 percent per year) pose a lot of pressure on land and other resources to meet the food security needs on one hand and to meet the challenges of globalization on the other. Understanding and addressing these challenges are very crucial, in which ICT can play a major role. With the booming mobile, wireless, and Internet industries, ICT has found a foothold even in poor marginal and smallholder farms and in their activities. The survey conducted among the 120 farmers in Srikakulam district in India revealed that, ICT has revolutionized the agriculture in the modern days. Production and marketing information is accessed by 91% of the sample farmers through mobile in 2015, where it was only 5% in 2005. The extent of use of mobile phones by the farmers varied with the decision to be taken by them like Harvesting, packing, and storing (94%), Selling Decision (91%), Seed purchase (89%), Application of fertilizers and pesticides (88%) and Land preparation and planting (84%), other package of practices (77%). The farmers further opined that, 'Voice' was the dominating source of communication (96%) compared to Short Message Service (SMS) (only 27%) and Internet access (10%), as majority are illiterate. The use of camera (71%), Bluetooth (33%), Radio (61%) TV (41%) are the other means of sharing the information. In this context of importance of ICTs in Indian agriculture, greater attention justifies about the applications of ICT's to alleviate poverty and promote economic growth of the farming population.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.57-68
• /
• 2001

It is matter of common knowledge to give impetus to the water resources development to cope with increasing demand and supply for the water utilization project including agricultural living and industrial water owing to the economic and civilization development in recent years. Regional design rainfall is necessary or the design of the dam reservoir levee and drainage facilities for the development of various kinds of essential waters including agricultural water. For the estimation of the regional design rainfall classification of the climatologically an geographically homogeneous regions should be preceded preferentially This study was mainly conducted to derive the optimal regionalization of the precipitation data which can be classified by the climatologically and geographically homogeneous regions all over the regions except Cheju and Wulreung islands in Korea. A total of 65 rain gauges were used to regional analysis of precipitation. Annual maximum series for the consecutive durations of 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 36, 48 and 72hr were used for various statistical analysis. Both K-means clustering and mean annual precipitation methods are used to identify homogeneous regions all over the regions. Nine and five homogeneous regions for the precipitation were classified by the K-means clustering and mean annual methods, respectively. Finally, Five homogeneous regions were established by the trial and error method with homogeneity test using statistics of $\chi$$^2$ distribution.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
• /
• 2006.05a
• /
• pp.1348-1351
• /
• 2006

Recently human beings face serious water crisis, namely water management at the critical moment because of rapid increasing in population, subordinate part of a national budget, water pollution by domestic use and industrial use or waste, agricultural water use by intensive market farming, excessive development and extraction of water sources, and etc. We become to recognize that water and sanitation is the one of most important part which is threatening us with a drain on the water resources and death around the world and then are making opportunities of discussion for water policies and solutions of water problems through international network such as Global Water Partnership(GWP), World Water council(WWC). World Water Forum(WWF), as one of main water-related activities, aims at sharing knowledge and experience among various stakeholders for accomplishing a holistic water resources management by making common thoughts regarding the necessity of integration among different organizations related with water management, problems and issues. Also the unity of each local area for the holistic approach focuses on showing present local actions and actively supporting them, and suggesting new ideas. With Korea's participation in the 4th WWF this year, Korean government should have consistency in its establishment and implementation of sustainable water resources policies as a more active and future-oriented member of international water network. Finally it will be necessary that we will set up an organization and system which does publicity activities about results of various local actions of Korea around the world through next WWF in the future and contribute to solving global water problems.

• Mycobiology
• /
• v.49 no.3
• /
• pp.285-293
• /
• 2021

Polylactic acid (PLA) and polycaprolactone (PCL) are commercially available bioplastics that are exploited worldwide, and both are biodegradable. The PLA and PCL polymer-degrading activity of 30 fungal strains that were isolated from terrestrial environments were screened based on the formation of a clear zone around fungal colonies on agar plates containing emulsified PLA or PCL. Among them, five strains yielded positive results of biodegradation. Strains Korean Agricultural Culture Collection (KACC) 83034BP and KNUF-20-PPH03 exhibited PCL degradation; two other strains, KACC 83035BP and KNUF-20-PDG05, degraded PLA; and the fifth strain, KACC 83036BP, biodegraded both tested plastics. Based on phylogenetic analyses using various combinations of the sequences of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions, RPB2, LSU, CAL, and b-TUB genes, the above-mentioned strains were identified as Apiotrichum porosum, Penicillium samsonianum, Talaromyces pinophilus, Purpureocillium lilacinum, and Fusicolla acetilerea, respectively. Based on our knowledge, this is the first report on (i) plastic biodegraders among Apiotrichum and Fusicolla species, (ii) the capability of T. pinophilus to degrade biodegradable plastics, (iii) the biodegradative activity of P. samsonianum against PCL, and (iv) the accurate identification of P. lilacinum as a PLA biodegrader. Further studies should be conducted to determine how the fungal species can be utilized in Korea.

• Animal Bioscience
• /
• v.37 no.2_spc
• /
• pp.346-359
• /
• 2024

Advanced and innovative breeding and management of meat-producing animals are needed to address the global food security and sustainability challenges. Beef production is an important industry for securing animal protein resources in the world and meat quality significantly contributes to the economic values and human needs. Improvement of cattle feed efficiency has become an urgent task as it can lower the environmental burden of methane gas emissions and the reduce the consumption of human edible cereal grains. Cattle depend on their symbiotic microbiome and its activity in the rumen and gut to maintain growth and health. Recent developments in high-throughput omics analysis (metagenome, metatranscriptome, metabolome, metaproteome and so on) have made it possible to comprehensively analyze microbiome, hosts and their interactions and to define their roles in affecting cattle biology. In this review, we focus on the relationships among gut microbiome and beef meat quality, feed efficiency, methane emission as well as host genetics in beef cattle, aiming to determine the current knowledge gaps for the development of the strategies to improve the sustainability of beef production.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.249-255
• /
• 2017

BACKGROUND: Globally, mulberry (Morus sp.) is exploited for feeding leaf to silkworms in order to obtain silk fiber or for animal feedstock production. Also, mulberry fruit is known to a by-product that was produced from mulberry tree after harvesting leaves for silkworm rearing, as a yield and consumption of mulberry fruit was increased, it has been fixing to a newincome crop. Mulberry leaves and fruits are used for the health benefits of human beings. Mulberry contains various bioactive components, such as alkaloids and flavonoids. Mulberry flavonoids are an important part of the diet because of their effects on human nutrition. The flavonoids in mulberry leaf and fruit of 'Suhyang'(Morus alba L.) were determined. METHODS AND RESULTS: Flavonoids for mulberry leaf and fruit of 'Suhyang' were analysed using ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detection and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-DAD-QTOF/MS)technique. An UPLC-DAD-QTOF/MS system was used, and identification of mulberry leaves constituents was carried out on the basis of the complementary information obtained from LC spectra, MS ions, and MS/MS fragments. The mulberry leaf (16 flavonoids) and fruit (9 flavonoids) were isolated and analyzed from Suhyang using UPLC-DAD-QTOF/MS chromatogram. To the best of our knowledge, Quercetin 3-O-(6"-O-malonyl) glucoside and quercetin 3-O-rutinoside (rutin) was detected on the highest content in leaf and fruit, respectively and further research will be devoted to evaluate their biological activity. CONCLUSION: Obtaining information about the concentration of functional materials in mulberry leaves could contribute to the development and promotion of processed, functional products and offer possible industrial use of 'Suhyang', holding promises to enhance the overall profitability of sericulture.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.299-311
• /
• 2013

An educational application (App) called 'Children's Food Avatar' was developed in this study by using a food DB of nutrition and functionality from Rural Development Administration (RDA) as a smart-learning mobile device for elementary school students. This App was designed for the development of children's desirable dietary habits through an on-line activity of food choices for a meal from food DB of RDA provided as Green Water Mill guide. A customized avatar system was introduced as an element of fun and interactive animation for children which provides nutritional evaluation of selected foods by changing its appearance, facial look, and speech balloon, and consequently providing chances of correcting their food choices for balanced diet. In addition, nutrition information menu was included in the App to help children understand various nutrients, their function and healthy dietary life. When the App was applied to 54 elementary school students for a week in November, 2012, significant increases in the levels of knowledge, attitude and behavior in their diet were observed compared with those of the control group (p < 0.05, 0.01). Both elementary students and teachers showed high levels of satisfaction ranging from 4.30 to 4.89 for the App, therefore, it could be widely used for the dietary education for elementary school students as a smart-learning device.

• Korean Journal of Breeding Science
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.250-257
• /
• 2008

Knowledge of genetic diversity and of the genetic relationships among elite breeding materials has had a significant impact on the improvement of crops. In maize, this information is particularly useful in i) planning crosses for hybrid and line development, ii) in assigning lines to heterotic groups and iii) in plant variety protection. We have used the SSR technique to study the genetic diversity and genetic relationships among 76 Korean waxy corn accessions, representing a diverse collection from throughout Korea. Assessment of genetic diversity among members of this group was conducted using 30 microsatellite markers. Among these 30 microsatellite markers, we identified a total of 127 alleles (with an average of 4.2 and a range of between 2 and 9 alleles per locus). Gene diversity at these 30 microsatellite loci varied from 0.125 to 0.795 with an average of 0.507. The cluster tree generated with the described microsatellite markers recognized two major groups with 36.5% genetic similarity. Group I includes 63 inbred lines, with similarity coefficients of between 0.365 and 0.99. Group II includes 13 inbred lines, with similarity coefficients of between 0.45 and 0.85. The present study indicates that the 30 microsatellite loci chosen for this analysis are effective molecular markers for the assessment of genetic diversity and genetic relationships between Korean waxy corn accessions. Specifically, this study's assessment of genetic diversity and relationships between a set of 76 Korean waxy corn inbred lines will be helpful for such activities as planning crosses for hybrid and line development and association mapping analyses of maize breeding programs in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.55-63
• /
• 2001

N fertilizer recommendations to optimize with consideration to maximum crop yields, maximum profits, and minimum N losses to ground or runoff water, an advisory system. Nitrogen Expert System (NES), was developed. The system was to estimate the optimal rate of N fertilizer application cornfields in Illinois. NES was constructed using Smart Elements, a knowledge-based system that manages the expertise of human experts. NES was reinforced by addition of the effect of a productivity index (PI), soil organic matter content (SOM), and pre-sidedressing of nitrate concentration (PSNT) to the optimal N fertilizer recommendation. NES contains 49 rules, 1 class, 14 objects, and 2 properties. NES was successfully operated, showing N recommendations with inputs of three soil properties including PI, SOM, and PSNT. NES can reduce N loss to the environment, but adherence to the recommendations may also reduce farmers income. Therefore, NES will be more effective by evaluating both environmental damage assessment and other economic agricultural management parameters and other soil physico-chemical parameters.