• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.99-113
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• 1997

The purpose of this study is to find out about the cause and adaptation process of urban households going to rural areas for agricultural management(Kwihyang nongga) through the microscopic analysis of a case study. Research results are summarized in the followings. The cause of Kwihyang nongga before the 1980s was generally due to the social causes like the support of dependent family or rural-to-urban migrants' maladjustment in urban society. After the 1980s, however, it was related to the economic reasons such as the increase of households' income by commercial agriculture more than the social ones. Most of Kwihyang nongga was traditionally the households which came back to their native places, rural areas. Recently the urban households which did not originally come from rural areas are going to rural space because of the cultivation of high profit oriented agricultural products. Recent Kwihyang nongga increased the size of commercial agriculture through leased farmland, not by a purchase of agricultural land. Even though the number of Kwihyang nongga is now a few, it is expected that the influence of Kwihyang nongga on rural society will be various and high because it consists of young generation. The increase of Kwihyang nongga may be one of the ways to mitigate the decreasing rate of utilization of agricultural lands due to the labor shortage of rural areas after industrialization. To solve rural problems related to underpopulation, it is necessary to establish the active plicies of helping Kwihyang nongga. The actions for Kwihyang nongga ought to emphasize the improvement of educational conditions and living facilities as well as financial aids and the improvement of farming conditions.