• Title/Summary/Keyword: IS Necessity

Search Result 6,287, Processing Time 0.044 seconds

Relationship Between Seasonal Dynamics of Zooplankton Community and Diversity in Small Reservoir Focusing on Occurrence Pattern (출현 양상 기반 소형호 내 동물플랑크톤 군집의 계절 변동과 다양성 관계)

  • Geun-Hyeok Hong;Hye-ji Oh;Yerim Choi;Jun-Wan Kim;Beom-Myeong Choi;KwangHyeon Chang;Min-Ho Jang
    • Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
    • /
    • v.56 no.2
    • /
    • pp.172-186
    • /
    • 2023
  • Small ponds, which exhibit unstable succession pattern of plankton community, are less well studied than large lakes. Recently, the importance of small ponds for local biodiversity conservation has highlighted the necessity of understanding the dynamics of biological community. In the present study, we collected zooplankton from three small reservoirs with monthly basis and analyzed their seasonal dynamics. To understand the complicated zooplankton community dynamics of small reservoirs, we categorized zooplankton species into four groups (LALF Group, Low Abundance Low Frequency; LAHF Group, Low Abundance High Frequency; HALF Group, High Abundance Low Frequency; HAHF Group, High Abundance High Frequency) based on their occurrence pattern (abundance and frequency). We compared the seasonal pattern of each group, and estimated community diversity based on temporal beta diversity contribution of each group. The result revealed that there is a relationship between groups with the same abundance but different occurrence frequencies, and copepod nauplii are common important component for both abundance and frequency. On the other hand, species included with LALF Group throughout the study period are key in terms of monthly succession and diversity. LALF Group includes Anuraeopsis fissa, Hexarthra mira and Lecane luna. However, groups containing species that only occur at certain times of the year and dominate the waterbody, HALF Group, hindered to temporal diversity. The results of this study suggest that the species-specific occurrence pattern is one key trait of species determining its contribution to total annual biodiversity of given community.

An Analytical Study on Rational use of Undersea Space (해저공간의 합리적 활용을 위한 분석적 연구)

  • Won-Jo Jung;Nam-Ki Park
    • Journal of Navigation and Port Research
    • /
    • v.47 no.3
    • /
    • pp.147-154
    • /
    • 2023
  • This study aims to determine the necessity, role, utilization, and operation and management plan in relation to the underwater space platform where humans can newly reside. It provides a comprehensive opinion on the need for creating undersea space and operation plans based on opinions of industry-university-affiliated organizations involved in the R&D project of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries for the utilization of undersea space and external experts participating in marine technology development. In this study, a survey was conducted on researchers participating in the construction of a Korean submarine space platform. FGI was conducted on marine technology development experts. Results were then derived. As a result of the analysis, the need for subsea space construction was found to be high. As for the role of subsea space, the most common opinion was to develop technology for utilizing subsea space and to secure marine science research functions. It was found that the creation of subsea space would have a positive impact on the domestic industry, especially the deep-sea development industry and the shipbuilding/offshore structure industry. In terms of utilization, after the end of the seabed space test bed, the response to utilization as a marine observation base and marine ecosystem research had the highest proportion. As for expected inconvenience, discomfort in the psychological environment was the highest. Experts suggest that securing a continuous budget is most important for stable operation in the future and that securing a manpower budget is essential for itemized budgets. In addition, it was judged that it would be appropriate to establish a prior agreement from the time of the prior agreement and prepare a countermeasure before proceeding with the project in order to ensure ownership issues, consignment management issues, and cost issues when using the project after the end of the project.

Natural Monument Cretaceous Stromatolite at the Daegu Catholic University, Gyeongsan: Occurrences, Natural Heritage Values, and Plan for Preservation and Utilization (천연기념물 경산 대구가톨릭대학교 백악기 스트로마톨라이트: 산상, 자연유산적 가치 및 보존·활용 방안)

  • KONG Dal-Yong;LEE Seong-Joo
    • Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
    • /
    • v.56 no.3
    • /
    • pp.214-232
    • /
    • 2023
  • Stromatolite at the Daegu Catholic University, Gyeongsan was designated as a natural monument in December 2009 because it was very excellent in terms of rarity, accessibility, preservation and scale. From the time of designation, the necessity of confirming the lateral extension of the stromatolite beds with the excavation of the surrounding area, and preparing a preservation plan was raised. Accordingly, the Cultural Heritage Administration conducted an investigation of the scale, production pattern, and weathering state of stromatolites with an excavation from April to December 2022, and based on this, suggested natural heritage values and conservation and use plans. The excavation was carried out in a 1,186m2 area surrounding the exposed hemispherical stromatolite (approximately 30m2). Stromatolites are continuously distributed over the entire excavation area, and hemispherical stromatolites predominate in the eastern region, and the distribution and size of hemispherical domes tend to decrease toward the west. These characteristics are interpreted as a result of long-term growth in large-scale lakes, where stratiform or small columnar domes continued to grow and connect with each other, finally forming large domes. Consequently, large and small domes were distributed on the bedding plane in clusters like coral reefs. The growth of plants and lichens, as well as small-scale faults and joints developed on the stromatolite bedding surface, is the main cause of accelerated weathering. However, preservation treatment with chemicals as with dinosaur footprints or dinosaur egg fossil sites is not suitable due to the characteristics of stromatolites, and preservation with the installation of closed protection facilities should be considered. This excavation confirmed that the distribution, size and value of stromatolites are much larger and higher than at the time of designation as a natural monument. Therefore, additional excavation of areas by experts that could not be excavated due to the discovery of buried cultural properties (stone chamber tombs) and reexamination of the expansion designation of natural monuments are required.

Necessity of Developing University Radiology Curriculum for Veterinary Hospital Radiological Technologists - D University Case Focusing - (동물병원 방사선사를 위한 대학 방사선학과 교육과정 개발 필요성 - D 대학 사례 중심으로 -)

  • Won-Jeong Lee
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
    • /
    • v.18 no.3
    • /
    • pp.203-212
    • /
    • 2024
  • The purpose of this study was to survey by the veterinary hospital Specialists (VHSs) and radiology students (RSs) for radiology curriculum development veterinary hospital (VH), and for veterinary hospital radiological technologists (VHRTs). VHSs were surveyed to regarding the basic information and radiological examination training, radiological examination experience, anatomy physiology, radiation safety management training, radiation biology training. RSs were surveyed to regarding the basic information and career paths, VH awareness, and VH-related department environments. The survey results were quantitatively entered into Excel and then analyzed using the SPSS ver. 26.0. The students were aged by 22.6 years old, and out of 171 students, male and female were 92 and 79 espectively. In employment career paths, 62.6% of all subjects responded that employment prospects at medical institutions were good. Employment prospects outside of medical institutions, VH had the highest number of students. Of the 83 students who responded that they wanted to work at a VH, 64 students liked animals, and 47 students the high potential for advancement. Of the 159 students who responded that there is potential for development of VH, 96.2% responded that it was due to the increase in companion animals. In the VH-related department environment, 94.7% responded that there was no related equipment, and 72.5% responded that the department needed to open animal care courses and 82.5% anatomy and physiology courses. 76.6% responded that they would be willing to take animal-related courses if they were offered. Among the 20 VHSAs, 4 had no experience in radiological examination of animals, 2 VHRTs, and 2 others. There were 7 people who had not received training in animal radiography, and 2 VHRTs had not received training in animal care and animal anatomy and physiology. This study is expected to be helpful in developing a radiology curriculum for VHRTs in the future.

A Comparative Study of Vegetation Phenology Using High-resolution Sentinel-2 Imagery and Topographically Corrected Vegetation Index (고해상도 Sentinel-2 위성 자료와 지형효과를 고려한 식생지수 기반의 산림 식생 생장패턴 비교)

  • Seungheon Yoo;Sungchan Jeong
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
    • /
    • v.26 no.2
    • /
    • pp.89-102
    • /
    • 2024
  • Land Surface Phenology (LSP) plays a crucial role in understanding vegetation dynamics. The near-infrared reflectance of vegetation (NIRv) has been increasingly adopted in LSP studies, being recognized as a robust proxy for gross primary production (GPP). However, NIR v is sensitive to the terrain effects in mountainous areas due to artifacts in NIR reflectance cannot be canceled out. Because of this, estimating phenological metrics in mountainous regions have a substantial uncertainty, especially in the end of season (EOS). The topographically corrected NIRv (TCNIRv) employs the path length correction (PLC) method, which was deduced from the simplification of the radiative transfer equation, to alleviate limitations related to the terrain effects. TCNIRv has been demonstrated to estimate phenology metrics more accurately than NIRv, especially exhibiting improved estimation of EOS. As the topographic effect is significantly influenced by terrain properties such as slope and aspect, our study compared phenology metrics estimations between south-facing slopes (SFS) and north-facing slopes (NFS) using NIRv and TCNIRv in two distinct mountainous regions: Gwangneung Forest (GF) and Odaesan National Park (ONP), representing relatively flat and rugged areas, respectively. The results indicated that TCNIR v-derived EOS at NFS occurred later than that at SFS for both study sites (GF : DOY 266.8/268.3 at SFS/NFS; ONP : DOY 262.0/264.8 at SFS/NFS), in contrast to the results obtained with NIRv (GF : DOY 270.3/265.5 at SFS/NFS; ONP : DOY 265.0/261.8 at SFS/NFS). Additionally, the gap between SFS and NFS diminished after topographic correction (GF : DOY 270.3/265.5 at SFS/NFS; ONP : DOY 265.0/261.8 at SFS/NFS). We conclude that TCNIRv exhibits discrepancy with NIR v in EOS detection considering slope orientation. Our findings underscore the necessity of topographic correction in estimating photosynthetic phenology, considering slope orientation, especially in diverse terrain conditions.

Analysis of Private Road Toll Discounts and Subsidy Payment Plan for Sunset-type Vehicles (민자도로의 통행료 할인 현황과 일몰형 통행차량의 보조금 지급 방안)

  • Kim, Ji-Myong;Lim, Kwangk-kyun
    • KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
    • /
    • v.44 no.4
    • /
    • pp.519-529
    • /
    • 2024
  • Vehicle toll discounts on private roads are categorized into two types: non-sunset and sunset. Sunset types refer to provisions in which all or part of a law loses its effect upon a specific legislator-set deadline. Vehicles eligible for 'sunset' discounts include cargo vehicles operating late at night and eco-friendly vehicles powered by electricity or hydrogen. Korean government has subsidized all reduced toll fees for vehicles classified as non-sunset types on private roads to operators, but no subsidies have been provided for toll reductions on sunset vehicles. The rapid increase in electric hydrogen vehicles escalates the burden of reduced toll revenue on private road operators. This study analyzed traffic volume and toll reduction data from eight private road operators nationwide as of the end of 2023 to propose the necessity and method of supporting sunset-type toll reduction subsidies. In 2022, the subsidy for non-sunset types amounted to 87.5 billion won, or 18.6 % of total traffic revenue. The toll exemption and reduction ratio under the concession agreement ranged from 4.0 % to 5.65 % of total traffic volume for each operator. Although the proportion of vehicles exempted from sunset traffic increased from 0.85 % in 2017 to 2.79 % in 2022, the reduction amount ratio reached 4.2 % (KRW 25.5 billion) of total traffic revenue in 2022. The escalating number of registered eco-friendly vehicles is gradually causing operating profit losses on private roads. In alignment with the government's policy to expand eco-friendly vehicles, it is imperative to consider including vehicles eligible for toll reductions listed under the sunset category for subsidy payments. The study established a minimum ratio for toll reduction assistance at 4.0 %, agreed upon between the road authorities and private operators. Three policy alternatives were proposed to ensure preservation of amounts exceeding this threshold for sustaining adequate toll revenue for private road operators.

Indication of Dissection of the 14v Lymph Node in Advanced Distal Gastric Cancer (원위부 진행성 위암에서의 상장간막정맥(14v) 림프절 절제술의 적응증)

  • Lim, Jung-Taek;Jung, Oh;Kim, Ji-Hoon;Oh, Sung-Tae;Kim, Byung-Sik;Park, Kun-Choon;Yook, Jeong-Hwan
    • Journal of Gastric Cancer
    • /
    • v.6 no.3
    • /
    • pp.154-160
    • /
    • 2006
  • Purpose: According to the 2nd English Edition of the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association (JGCA) in 1998, in case of distal gastric cancer, the 14v (superior mesenteric vein) lymph node (LN) is included in the N2 group. However, in Korea, a modified radical gastrectomy is performed, and a 14v LN dissection is not done as a routine procedure. Thus, we investigated the rate of metastatic 14v LNs, evaluated the necessity of dissection of the 14v LN, and searched for indications of 14v LN dissection. Materials and Methods: From April 2004 to August 2005, we enrolled the patients who were diagnosed as having advanced gastric cancer in the distal third portion of the stomach. We peformed a distal gastrectomy with D2 lymph node dissection as defined in the 2nd English edition of the JGCA classification. We calculated the positive rate of metastatic LNs of each station and analyzed the relationship between the positive rates of No.6 LNs and 14v LNs. We also compared the positive 14v LN group with the negative 14v LN group. Results: The total number of patients was 50, the mean age was 56 (range $30{\sim}80$) years, and sex ratio (Male/Female) was 1.63 : 1. In 47 (94%) cases, distal a gastrectomy with gastroduodenostomy was done, and in the remaining 3 (6%) cases, a distal gastrectomy with gastrojejunostomy was done. The most frequently metastatic LNs were nos. 3 and 6 (54%). The metastatic rate of the f4v LN was 10%, which was similar to that of LN no. 9. In the comparison of the 14v positive group with the 14v negative group, there were significant differences in the numbers of metastatic LNs (mean 25.4 vs 4.91, P<0.001) and the numbers of metastatic no. 6 LNs, (mean 6.8 vs 1.42, P<0.001), and if no. 6 LNs were metastatic, the possibility of metastasis to the 14v LN was 19.2%. In the 14v positive group, all cases were more than stage 3 by the UICC 6th edition. Conclusion: In cases of advanced cancer with metastasis to the no. 6 IN, there was a good chance of metastasis to the 14v LN. Thus, in the operative field, if the tumor is advanced to more than stage 3 by the UICC classification and the no. 6 LN is metastatic, a 14v LN dissection is necessary. However, the usefulness of a 14v LN dissection should be evaluated prospectively through an analysis of tumor recurrence and long-term survival.

  • PDF

Study on 3D Printer Suitable for Character Merchandise Production Training (캐릭터 상품 제작 교육에 적합한 3D프린터 연구)

  • Kwon, Dong-Hyun
    • Cartoon and Animation Studies
    • /
    • s.41
    • /
    • pp.455-486
    • /
    • 2015
  • The 3D printing technology, which started from the patent registration in 1986, was a technology that did not attract attention other than from some companies, due to the lack of awareness at the time. However, today, as expiring patents are appearing after the passage of 20 years, the price of 3D printers have decreased to the level of allowing purchase by individuals and the technology is attracting attention from industries, in addition to the general public, such as by naturally accepting 3D and to share 3D data, based on the generalization of online information exchange and improvement of computer performance. The production capability of 3D printers, which is based on digital data enabling digital transmission and revision and supplementation or production manufacturing not requiring molding, may provide a groundbreaking change to the process of manufacturing, and may attain the same effect in the character merchandise sector. Using a 3D printer is becoming a necessity in various figure merchandise productions which are in the forefront of the kidult culture that is recently gaining attention, and when predicting the demand by the industrial sites related to such character merchandise and when considering the more inexpensive price due to the expiration of patents and sharing of technology, expanding opportunities and sectors of employment and cultivating manpower that are able to engage in further creative work seems as a must, by introducing education courses cultivating manpower that can utilize 3D printers at the education field. However, there are limits in the information that can be obtained when seeking to introduce 3D printers in school education. Because the press or information media only mentions general information, such as the growth of the industrial size or prosperous future value of 3D printers, the research level of the academic world also remains at the level of organizing contents in an introductory level, such as by analyzing data on industrial size, analyzing the applicable scope in the industry, or introducing the printing technology. Such lack of information gives rise to problems at the education site. There would be no choice but to incur temporal and opportunity expenses, since the technology would only be able to be used after going through trials and errors, by first introducing the technology without examining the actual information, such as through comparing the strengths and weaknesses. In particular, if an expensive equipment introduced does not suit the features of school education, the loss costs would be significant. This research targeted general users without a technology-related basis, instead of specialists. By comparing the strengths and weaknesses and analyzing the problems and matters requiring notice upon use, pursuant to the representative technologies, instead of merely introducing the 3D printer technology as had been done previously, this research sought to explain the types of features that a 3D printer should have, in particular, when required in education relating to the development of figure merchandise as an optional cultural contents at cartoon-related departments, and sought to provide information that can be of practical help when seeking to provide education using 3D printers in the future. In the main body, the technologies were explained by making a classification based on a new perspective, such as the buttress method, types of materials, two-dimensional printing method, and three-dimensional printing method. The reason for selecting such different classification method was to easily allow mutual comparison of the practical problems upon use. In conclusion, the most suitable 3D printer was selected as the printer in the FDM method, which is comparatively cheap and requires low repair and maintenance cost and low materials expenses, although rather insufficient in the quality of outputs, and a recommendation was made, in addition, to select an entity that is supportive in providing technical support.

Interlaboratory Comparison of Blood Lead Determination in Some Occupational Health Laboratories in Korea (일부 산업보건기관들의 혈중연 분석치 비교)

  • Ahn, Kyu Dong;Lee, Byung Kook
    • Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
    • /
    • v.5 no.1
    • /
    • pp.8-15
    • /
    • 1995
  • The reliable measurement of metal in biological media in human body is one of critical indicators for the proper evaluation of its toxic effect on human health. Recently in Korea the necessity of quality assurance of measurement in occupational health and occupational hygiene fields brought out regulatory quality control program. Lead is often used as a standard metal for the program in both fields of occupational health and hygiene. During last 20 years lead poisoning was prevalent in Korea and still is one of main heavy metal poisoning and the capability of the measurement of blood lead is one of prerequisites for institute of specialized occupational health in Korea. Furthermore blood lead is most important indicator to evaluate lead burden of human exposure to lead and the reliable and accurate analysis is most needed whenever possible. To evaluate the extent of the interlaboratory differences of blood lead measurement in several well-known institute specialized in occupational health in Korea, authors prepared 68 blood samples from two storage battery industries and all samples were divided into samples with 2 ml. One set of 68 samples were analyzed by authors's laboratory(Soonchunhyang University Institute of Industrial Medicine: SIIM) and 40 samples of other set were analyzed by C University Institute of Industrial Medicine(CIIM) and the rest 28 samples of other set were analyzed by Japanese institute(K Occupational Health Center:KOHC). Authors also prepared test bovine samples which were obtained from Japanese Federation of Occupational Health Organization (JFOHO) for quality control. Authors selected 2 other well-known occupational health laboratories and one laboratory specialized for instrumental analysis. A total of 6 laboratories joined the interlaboratory comparison of blood lead measurement and the results obtained were as follows: 1. There was no significant difference in average blood lead between SIIM and CIIM in different group of blood lead concentration, and the relative standard deviation of two laboratories was less than 3.0%. On the other hand, there was also no significant difference of average blood lead between SIIM and KOHC with relative standard deviation of 6.84% as maximum. 2. Taking less than 15% difference of mean or less than 6 ug/dl difference in below 40 ug/dl in whole blood as a criteria of agreement of measurement between two laboratories, agreement rates were 87.5%(35/40) and 78.6%(22/28) between SIIM and CIIM, SIIM and KOHC respectively. 3. The correlation of blood lead between SIIM and CIIM was 0.975 (p=0.0001) and the regression equation was SIIM = 2.19 + 0.9243 ClIM, whereas the correlation between SUM and KOHC was O.965(p=0.0001) with the equation of SIIM = 1.91 + 0.9794 KOHC. 4. Taking the reference value as a dependent variable and each of 6 laboratories's measurement value as a independent variable, the determination coefficient($R^2$) of simple regression equations of blood lead measurement for bovine test samples were very high($R^2>0.99$), and the regression coefficient(${\beta}$) was between 0.972 and 1.15 which indicated fairly good agreement of measurement results.

  • PDF

A study on the improvement of distribution system by overseas agricultural investment (해외농업투자에 따른 유통체계 개선방안에 관한 연구)

  • Sun, Il-Suck;Lee, Dong-Ok
    • Journal of Distribution Science
    • /
    • v.8 no.3
    • /
    • pp.17-26
    • /
    • 2010
  • Recently concerns have been raised due to the unbalanced supply of crops: the price of crops has been unstable and at one point the price went up so high that the word Agflation(agriculture+ inflation) was coined. Korea, in particular, is a small-sized country and needs to secure the stable supply of crops by investing in the produce importation at a national level. Investment in foreign produce importation is becoming more important as a measure for sufficient supply of crops, limited supply of domestic crops, weakened farming conditions worldwide, as well as recent changes in the use of crops due to the development of bio-fuels, influence of carbon emission on crops, the price increase in crops, and influx of foreign hot money. However, there are many problems with investing in foreign produce importation: lack of support from the government; lack of farming information and technology; difficulty in securing the capital; no immediate pay-off from the investment and insufficient management. Although foreign produce is originally more price-competitive than domestic produce, it loses its competiveness in the process of importation (due to high tariffs) and poor distribution system, which makes it difficult to sell in Korea. Therefore, investment in foreign produce importation is being questioned for feasibility; to make it possible, foreign produce must maintain the price-competitiveness. Especially, harvest of agricultural products depends on natural and geographical conditions of each country and those products have indigenous properties, so distribution system according to import and export of agricultural products should be treated more carefully than that of other industries. Distribution costs are differentiated into each item and include cost of sorting and wrapping, cost of wrapping materials, cost of domestic transport, cost of international transport and cost of clearing customs for import and export. So transporting and storing agricultural products generates considerable costs compared with other products. Also, due to upgrade of dietary life, needs for stability, taste and visible quality toward food including agricultural products are being raised and wrong way of storage causes decomposition of food and loss of freshness, making the storage more difficult than that in room temperature, so storage and transport in distribution of agricultural products needs specialty. In addition, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. However, existing distribution system of agricultural products is exposed to various problems including problems in distribution channel, making distribution and strategy for distribution and those problems are as follows. First, in case of investment in overseas agricultural industry, stable supply of the products is difficult because areas of production are dispersed widely and influenced by outer factors due to including overseas distribution channels. Also, at the aspect of quality, standardization of products is difficult, distribution system is quite complicated and unreasonable due to long distribution channels according to international trade and financial and institutional support is not enough. Especially, there are quite a lot of ineffective factors including multi level distribution process, dramatic gap between production cost and customer's cost, lack of physical distribution facilities and difficulties in storage and transport due to lack of wrapping containers. Besides, because import and export of agricultural products has been manages under the company's own distribution according to transaction contract between manufacturers and exporting company, efficiency is low due to excessive investment in fixed costs and lack of specialty in dealing with agricultural products causes fall of value of products, showing the limit to lose price-competitiveness. Especially, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. Second, among tangible and intangible services which promote the efficiency of the whole distribution, a function building distribution environment which includes distribution information, system for standard and inspection, distribution finance, system for diversification of risks, education and training, distribution administration and tax system is wanted. In general, such a function building distribution environment is difficult to be changed and supplement innovatively because its effect compared with investment does not appear immediately despite of its necessity. Especially, in case of distribution of agricultural products, as a function of collecting and distributing is performed individually through various channels, the importance of distribution information and standardization is getting more focus due to the problem of repetition of work and lack of specialty. Also, efficient management of distribution is quite difficult due to lack of professionals in distribution, so support to professional education is needed. Third, though effort to keep self-sufficiency ratio of staple food, rice is regarded as important at the government level, level of dependency on overseas of others crops is high. Therefore, plan for stable securing food resources aside from staple food is also necessary. Especially, governmental organizations of agricultural products distribution in Korea are production-centered and have unreasonable structure whose function at the aspect of distribution and consumption is quite insufficient. And development of new distribution channels which can deal with changes in distribution environment and they do not achieve actual results of strategy for distribution due to non-positive strategy for price distribution. That is, it implies the possibility that base for supply will become vulnerable because it does not mediate appropriate interests on total distribution channels such as manufacturers, wholesale dealers and vendors by emphasizing consumer protection excessively in the distribution of agricultural products. Therefore, this study examined fundamental concept and actual situation for our investment to overseas agriculture, drew necessities, considerations, problems, etc. of overseas agricultural investment and suggested improvements at the level of distribution for price competitiveness of agricultural products cultivated in overseas under five aspects; government's indirect support, distribution's modernization and distribution information function's strengthening, government's political support for distribution facility, transportation route, load and unloading works' improvement, price competitiveness' securing, professional manpower's cultivation by education and training, etc. Here are some suggestions for foreign produce importation. First, the government should conduct a survey on the current distribution channels and analyze the situation to establish a measure for long-term development plans. By providing each agricultural area with a guideline for planning appropriate production of crops, the government can help farmers be ready for importation, and prevent them from producing same crops all at the same time. Government can sign an MOU with the foreign government and promote the importation so that the development of agricultural resources can be stable and steady. Second, the government can establish a strategy for an effective distribution system by providing farmers and agriculture-related workers with the distribution information such as price, production, demand, market structure and location, feature of each crop, and etc. In order for such distribution system to become feasible, the government needs to reconstruct the current distribution system, designate a public organization for providing distribution information and set the criteria for level of produce quality, trade units, and package units. Third, the government should provide financial support and a policy to seek an efficient distribution channel for foreign produce to be delivered fresh: the government should expand distribution facilities (for selecting, packaging, storing, and processing) and transportation vehicles while modernizing old facilities. There should be another policy to improve the efficiency of unloading, and to lower the cost of distribution. Fourth, it is necessary to enact a new law covering exceptional cases for importing produce in order to maintain the price competitiveness; currently the high tariffs is keeping the imported produce from being distributed domestically. However, the new adjustment should be made carefully within the WTO regulations since it can create a problem from giving preferential tariffs. The government can also simplify the distribution channels in order to reduce the cost in the distribution process. Fifth, the government should educate distributors to raise the efficiency and to modernize the distribution system. It is necessary to develop human resources by educating people regarding the foreign agricultural environment, the produce quality, management skills, and by introducing some successful cases in advanced countries.

  • PDF