• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.19 no.spc
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• pp.74-77
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• 2011

The production practices, productivity and economic performance of organic and non-chemical rice farming were compared in Jeonnam Province, Korea. Korean organic rice farming showed a lack of use of resistant varieties and rotational cropping systems as well as less use of farm wastes and a high dependency upon external inputs. When compared with no-chemical rice production practices very little differences were found. However, organic rice farming showed 15% to 18% higher profits than no-chemical farming even though the productivity was arguably similar between the two farming types. This may encourage more farmers to convert to organic production rather than non-chemical farming as the farming practices are very similar, thereby resulting in increased supply of organic products and decreased prices for organic rice near future. There is a need to more greatly differentiate organic farming practices and products from those of no-chemical farming.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Organic Agriculture Conference
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• 2009.12a
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• pp.284-284
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• 2009

EFA production systems have through necessity resulted in the development of innovative practices for weed, pest and diseases control, for example, using ducks and snails for weed control in paddy fields. These practices began to be introduced in the early 1990's and the techniques have become more popular and have been adapted to suit regional conditions. In this study, the production practices, productivity and economic performances of organic and non-chemical rice farming adopting ducks and snails for weed control were compared. In the production practices, Korean organic and non-chemical farming seem to have several concerns in terms of sustainability. It comprises lack of resistant variety use and rotational cropping system as well as high dependency upon external inputs such as organic fertilizer and farming materials for pest control. The production level of organic farming is approximately similar level but 20% higher income than non-chemical farming, while, when it was compared with conventional farming organic farming showed 20% lower productivity but 20% higher income. Organic farming shows 15% to 18% higher profits than non-chemical farming as the snail-using organic farming tends to have higher income and lower input costs than duck-using organic farming. This may encourage more farmers to convert to organic production using these techniques than simply non-chemical farming in the future. This organic conversion could be more promoted by policy intervention. However, it may result in increased supply and therefore decreased prices for organic rice in the long term unless further market demand occurs. Balanced policy measures considering production as well as marketing and consumption are urgently required for the sustainable development of organic farming.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.317-334
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• 2019

The present study was conducted to investigate the differences in managed farming practices, including low-intensive farming, duck farming, and golden apple snail farming, in a rice ecosystem by comparing terrestrial arthropod communities. A total of 75 species from 70 genera belonging to 43 families in 11 orders were identified from 9,622 collected arthropods. Araneae, Hemiptera, and Coleoptera were the richest taxa. Collembola was the most abundant, followed by Diptera, Hemiptera, and Araneae. Bray-Curtis similarity among the farming practices was very high (76.7%). The biodiversity of each farming practice showed a similar seasonality pattern. The richest species group was the predators, followed by the herbivores. The species richness and diversity of ecologically functional groups among the farming practices were not statistically significant, except for the abundance of predators in golden apple snail farming. The biodiversity seasonality of ecological functional groups in each farming practice showed similar patterns. The biomass of Araneae, Hemiptera, Coleoptera, and Diptera was greater than the other taxa, in general. The biomass of each ecological functional group showed little difference and the biomass fluctuation patterns in each farming practice were almost the same. Collectively, the community structures and biodiversity of terrestrial arthropods among the farming practices in the present study were not different. The present study may contribute to sustain rich biodiversity in irrigated rice fields and to advanced studies of food webs or energy flow structures in rice fields for ecological and sustainable agriculture.

• Journal of Appropriate Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.88-93
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• 2020

Kaanaeli Agri Business intends to increase Vanilla production by establishing A DEMO Plot at Ngyeku Village and Conducting Seminars/workshops to Farmer's groups, mainly on Sustainable Vanilla husbandry and Fish farming practices with affordable and customized methods involving: • Proper land use demarcation at household levels • Soil fertility management • Bio-intensive agriculture practices (Organic farming) • Environmental conservation and • To address Market issues, to medium and smallholder farmers of Meru district, Arusha-Tanzania.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.75-80
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• 2011

IDF/FAO Guide to Good Dairy Farming Practice (the second edition) was published last September this year. The objective of the guide for good dairy farming practice is that safe, quality milk should be produced from healthy animals using management practices that are sustainable from an animal welfare, social, economic and environmental perspective. To achieve this objective, dairy farmers should apply good practice in the following areas: animal health, milking hygiene, nutrition (feed and water), animal welfare, environment, and socio-economic management. Although HACCP system has been introduced to some of Korean dairy farms since 2007, the IDF/FAO guide details GAP (Good Agricultural Practice) for dairy farmers emphasizing the production of safe, quality-assured dairy products in a sustainable manner that underpins the future of dairy farming on a local, national and international scale. This paper is to state what good dairy farming practices should be and suggest Korean dairy farmers measures to achieve goals.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.151-159
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• 2019

The aim of this paper is to identify the characteristics of social economy in social farming practices, and to explore three core factors of experiment, openness and locality, which have a significant impact on the working-mechanism of social innovation. Though a few social farming practice appear nowadays in Korea, it can be witnessed social economic factors such as cooperation between networks and solidarity actors, pursuing social values in social farming. On the basis of the conceptual framework on the social economy characteristics, this study examines case analysis in order to find the possibilities as a social innovation of the social farming. Three farms perform multiple functions of care, labour integration, training in farming area, and sometimes make collaboration work with artists and local residents. Social farming can be social innovation practices in the view of the interaction of experiments, openness and locality within the context of an innovation process, networking, enhancing social capital.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.235-250
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• 2020

Agricultural practices are known to have a crucial influence not only on soil physico-chemical properties but also on microbial communities. To investigate the effect of farming practices on soil microbial communities, a total of 10 soil samples were collected, including five conventional and five organic farming soils cultivated with peppers in plastic greenhouse. We conducted barcorded-pyrosequencing of V1-V3 regions of 16S rRNA genes to examine soil microbial communities of two different farming practices. Taxonomic classification of the microbial communities at the phylum level indicated that a total of 22 bacterial phyla were present across all samples. Among them, seven abundant phyla (>3%) including Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, and Gemmatimonadetes were found, and Proteobacteria (33.0 ± 5.7%), Actinobacteria (19.9 ± 9.7%), and Firmicutes (13.6 ± 5.0%) comprised more than 66% of the relative abundance of the microbial communities. Organic farming soils showed higher relative abundances of Proteobacteria and Firmicutes, while Actinobacteria and Chloroflexi were more abundant in conventional farming soils. Notably, the genera Bacillus (higher in organic farming soils) and Streptomyces (higher in conventional farming soils) exhibited significant variation in relative abundance between organic and conventional farming soils. Finally, correlation analysis identified significant relationships (p<0.05) between soil chemical properties, in particular, pH and organic matter content and microbial communities. Taken together, this study demonstrated that the changes of soil physico-chemical properties by agricultural farming practices effected significantly (p<0.05) on soil microbial communities.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.309-316
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• 2008

To develop a monitoring method for soil microbial communities in rice paddy fields, we used terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) to compare soil bacterial community structure in rice paddy fields experiencing different management practices: organic practices, conventional practices without a winter barley rotation, and conventional practices with a winter barley rotation. Restriction fragment length profiles from soils farmed using organic practices showed very different patterns from those from conventional practices with and without barley rotation. In principal component analyses, restriction fragment profiles in organic practice samples were clearly separated from those in conventional practice samples, while principal component analysis did not show a clear separation for soils farmed using conventional practices with and without barley rotation. The cluster analysis showed that the bacterial species compositions of soils under organic practices were significantly different from those under conventional practices at the 95% level, but soils under conventional practice with and without barley rotation did not significantly differ. Although the loadings from principal component analyses and the Ribosomal DNA Project II databases suggested candidate species important for soils under organic farming practices, it was very difficult to get detailed bacterial species information from terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism. Rank-abundance diagrams and diversity indices showed that restriction fragment peaks under organic farming showed high Pielou's Evenness Index and the reciprocal of Simpson Index suggesting high bacterial diversity in organically farmed soils.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.45-56
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• 2018

This study analyzed the selection factors for cultivation practices in paddy rice farming. For the study, conjoint model with part-worth utility was adopted, where model profiles included three attributes of yield, production cost, and cultivation difficulties and two levels for each attribute. The value of each level was set up with experimental data obtained from National Institute of Crop Science. Ninety three rice farmers, who joined Korea Rural Economic Institute as farmer correspondences, were surveyed through internet with the profiles selected by factorial design. Result showed that rice farmers considered cultivation difficulties as the most important selection factor to adopt new cultivation practices followed by production cost and yield in consecutive order. This results were robust in spite of past experiences with new practices, willingness to adopt new practices in the future, imitative nature and government interventions.

• Mycobiology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.19-23
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• 2008

Red pepper (Capsicum annum L.) roots and soils representing different agricultural management practices such as conventional (CON), no-chemical (NOC), and organic farming systems (ORG) were collected from 32 farm field sites in Kyunggi, Korea to investigate the effects of these agricultural practices on arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis. ORG inoculum significantly increased plant growth compared to inoculum from CON and NOC. A community analysis of AM fungi (AMF) using morphological features of spores revealed that AMF spore abundance and species diversity were significantly higher in ORG than in CON. Additionally, a community analysis of AMF colonizing roots using a molecular technique revealed higher AMF diversity in ORG than in CON. These results suggest that agricultural practices significantly influence AM fungal community structure and mycorrhizal inoculum potential.