• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.81-94
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• 2005

This study is aimed at giving the basic information for individual farm households to make decisions for optimizing their farm sizes and for the government to implement farm size optimization policies through the identification of combinations among rice production factors in plain areas like Cheolwon district and the suggestion of the optimal farm sizes of individual farmers based on the scale of economy calculated. The data of agricultural production costs of 50 rice farmers in the plain area which is located in Dongsong-eup Cholwon district, Kangwon province were used in the analysis. The 'translog' cost function among various methods which is a flexible function type was adopted to calculate the scale of economy in rice production. Seemingly unrelated regression(SUR) method was used in forecasting functions and processing other statistics by SHAZAM which is one of the computer aid program for quantitative econometric analysis. In conclusion, the long-run average cost(LAC) curve showed 'U-shape' which was different from 'L-type' one which was shown in the previous studies by others. The lowest point of the LAC was 9.764ha and the concerned production cost amounted to 633 Won/kg. Based on these results, it have to be suggested that around 10 ha of paddy is the target size for policy assistances to save costs under the present level of farming practices and technology. The above results show that the rice production costs could be saved up to 10ha in Cheolwon plain area which is a typical paddy field. However, land use, land condition, land ownership and manager's ability which may affect scale of economy should be considered. Furthermore, reasonable management will have to be realized by means of labor saving technology and cost saving management skill like enlargement of farm size of rice.