• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.624-633
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• 2009

This study examines farmers' knowledge and perception on the functions and values of wetland and their attitudes on government wetland policies in the state of Illinois in the United States. No significant differences were found in the knowledge of the functions and values of wetland between farmers and non-farmers, although farmers tend to value the importance of wetland less than non-farmers. However, farmers are negative on the importance of protecting wetland and replacing damaged or destroyed wetlands as well as stricter government wetland policies. It suggests that noticeable discrepancy exists between farmers' knowledge of wetland and their practice to protect wetland.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.211-224
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• 2018

The presence of agricultural and rural society in South Korea has been threatened due to aging as well as depopulation. This study aims to explore the Japanese support scheme for new farmers and the role of local group in new farmers' successful settlement in agricultural and rural society. The case study area is Biratori-cho, Hokkaido, Japan. Firstly, this study identified the systemic support scheme for new farmers of Biratori-cho, which provides with two years' training program, mentoring, rental housing and financial aid. Secondly, we focused on the birth and the supporting role of local group, which is called 'Neo-frontier'. Lastly, we analysed the relationship of new farmers and local residents based on the in-depth interview of 11 new farmers' household. As conclusions, we emphasized the value of quality-based support scheme of local government, unlike the quantity-based policy focused on the number of in-migrants. Also, we discussed the meaning of social network in new farmers' successful settlement in agricultural and rural society.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.248-254
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• 2022

Background: Occupational hazards in crop farms vary diversely based on different field operations as soil management, harvesting processes, pesticide, or fertilizer application. We aimed at evaluating the immunological status of crop farmers, as limited systematic investigations on immune alteration involved with crop farming have been reported yet. Methods: Immunological parameters including plasma immunoglobulin level, major peripheral immune cells distribution, and level of cytokine production from activated T cell were conducted. Nineteen grape orchard, 48 onion open-field, and 21 rose greenhouse farmers were participated. Results: Significantly low proportion of natural killer (NK) cell, a core cell for innate immunity, was revealed in the grape farmers (19.8±3.3%) in comparison to the onion farmers (26.4±3.1%) and the rose farmers (26.9±2.5%), whereas cytotoxic T lymphocyte proportion was lower in the grape and the onion farmers than the rose farmers. The proportion of NKT cell, an immune cell implicated with allergic response, was significantly higher in the grape (2.3±0.3%) and the onion (1.6±0.8%) farmers compared with the rose farmers (1.0±0.4%). A significantly decreased interferon-gamma:interleukin-13 ratio was observed from ex vivo stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells of grape farmers compared with the other two groups. The grape farmers revealed the lowest levels of plasma IgG1 and IgG4, and their plasma IgE level was not significantly different from that of the onion or the rose farmers. Conclusion: Our finding suggests the high vulnerability of workplace-mediated allergic immunity in grape orchard farmers followed by open-field onion farmers and then the rose greenhouse farmers.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.251-261
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• 2023

Objective: Farmers are known to have high prevalence of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD). This study aims to investigate the current status of asthma and COPD in domestic and foreign farmers with the ultimate goal of raising awareness of asthma and COPD among farmers and contribute to supporting evidence for the prevention of respiratory diseases in farmers. Methods: The study utilized data from the "Farmer's Occupational Disease Survey," conducted by the Rural Development Administration, to determine the prevalence of respiratory diseases in domestic farmers. The prevalence of asthma and COPD in overseas farmers was evaluated by researching other foreign studies and articles. Results: The prevalence of asthma and COPD in domestic farmers was less than of foreign farmers'. The prevalence of asthma in domestic farmers was high as upto 8.4% and COPD upto 5.5%. Studies from Europe and America showed prevalence of asthma in farmers high as upto 14.8% and COPD upto 17.1%. Conclusions: This study conducted an investigation using the 'Survey on Occupational Diseases and Injuries in Farmers to understand the current status of asthma and COPD in domestic farmers. Due to a lack of relevant domestic research, we examined and compared with the research results on asthma and COPD among overseas farmers. Further research is necessary and preventive measures for respiratory diseases need to be developed.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-28
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• 2012

The Extension Program accountability will continue to be an influential force to develop agriculture and rural area. As we incorporate new approaches into our service program and respond to new domains of knowledge, we must also consider how our assessment strategies may need to change in order to meet local and other external standards. The main purpose of the study was to be what the best way of Extension Service is set farmers' educational needs met and to be what kind of methodologies and role of Extension system should provide for their faced problem solving effectively. The major results of the study on Farmers' needs toward Korean Extension Services are summarized as follows. First, it is observed that, when the farmers' perceptions were analyzed, the most ranked by the farmers' needs was "having nice extension workers to get advice and solve their problems on the farm in all at once." Farmers had especially more positive attitudes in the categories of interest and careers in ag-technology. To do services level up, the headquarter of Rural Development of Administration must be work with local branches to effectively deliver their missions and educational objectives to target crops and farmers group. And farmers were strongly needed "a specialized service team will be organized" to work closely with operating services for ag-products processing, packing and marketing. The recommendations were made by: farmers' needs should be identified and announced by computer networking development to solve their problems faster. Also, provincial and county level service members should have a chance to working at research institute or related work places with their incentives, which system will be easer to meet farmers' needs and deal with their problems so that the systematic approaches should be managed and recorded their educational attendings, education contents and even their farming corporations. Finally, Agricultural Extension Service should be met to general ag-technology literacy and be balanced with knowledge of other industries and be competitive service with better values in non-agricultural sectors.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.259-268
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• 1998

It has been reported that among mushroom farmers, respiratory diseases such as hypersensitivity pneumonitis can be developed by inhalation of mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) spores. For the evaluation of respiratory symptoms among mushroom farmers, a questionnaire was made. The Questionnaire included general characteristics, past occupational histories, durations of the mushroom cultivation and characteristics of the symptoms. Following the questionnaire we interviewed the 72 mushroom farmers (12 males, 10 females) from Kyungbuk Province. We also examined white blood counts, erythrocyte sedimentation rates, eosinophil counts and total IgE counts for the 5 farmers. The results obtained are as follows. 1. The mean age among the 22 mushroom farmers was 46.9 years, and the mean duration of cultivation was 7.5 years. 2. Among the 22 mushroom farmers. 18 farmers (81.8 %) suffered from respiratory symptoms at work. The main symptom was coughing (100.0%), followed by chilling sensation (50.0 %), sputum (38.9 %) and sore throat (27.8 %). 3. Coughing and other associated symptoms occurred during work and disappeared after work or several days later when the exposure had been stopped. 4. Total IgE counts were elevated in all farmers examined the test. With above results, the respiratory symptoms that developed among mushroom farmers were typical patterns of hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Epidemiological studies and preventive measures for mushroom farmers should be established.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.751-761
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to assess the physical activity level of Korean farmers to establish their estimated energy requirements during busy farming season. 113 farmers (mean age $51.9{\pm}7.2$ years, male 42, female 71) who own farmland area above 300 pyung participated in measurement of body weight and height and interviewing of one-day activity diaries. There was no significant difference in age, BMI between male and female. Obesity prevalence according to BMI among male and female farmers was 40.5% and 50.7% respectively. The farmers spent about 7 hours in sleeping and spent about 4 hours 35 minutes working on the farm and spent about 15 hours 30 minutes (64.6% of 24 hours) in "very light activities" and spent about 3 hours 31 minutes (14.7%) in "light activities". Physical activity level (PAL, activity coefficient) of male farmers was 2.63 which was significantly higher than that (2.19) of female farmers (p < 0.05). Estimated energy requirements (EER) for farmers who were different in age and gender were suggested. For example, the estimated energy requirements for male and female farmers were 3058 kcal/day and 2279 kcal/day, respectively. The results of this study suggest that estimated energy requirements (EER) of farmers should be differentiated according to seasonal workload and energy balance of farmers should be evaluated to prevent obesity.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.619-627
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• 2022

In Korea, apples and pears are among the most important agricultural products to farmers who seek to earn money as income. Generally, farmers make decisions at various stages to maximize their income but they do not always know exactly which option will be the best one. Many previous studies were conducted to solve this problem by predicting farmers' income structure, but researchers are still exploring better approaches. Currently, machine learning technology is gaining attention as one of the new approaches for farmers' income prediction. The machine learning technique is a methodology using an algorithm that can learn independently through data. As the level of computer science develops, the performance of machine learning techniques is also improving. The purpose of this study is to predict the income structure of apples and pears using the automatic machine learning solution H2O.AI and to present some implications for apple and pear farmers. The automatic machine learning solution H2O.AI can save time and effort compared to the conventional machine learning techniques such as scikit-learn, because it works automatically to find the best solution. As a result of this research, the following findings are obtained. First, apple farmers should increase their gross income to maximize their income, instead of reducing the cost of growing apples. In particular, apple farmers mainly have to increase production in order to obtain more gross income. As a second-best option, apple farmers should decrease labor and other costs. Second, pear farmers also should increase their gross income to maximize their income but they have to increase the price of pears rather than increasing the production of pears. As a second-best option, pear farmers can decrease labor and other costs.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.244-253
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• 2022

Background: The indiscriminate use of pesticides in Nigeria may have harmful effects on reproductive health of farmers. Objectives: This study assessed the awareness of reproductive health, serum follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone, estradiol, progesterone and sperm characteristics of male farmers occupationally exposed to pesticides. Methods: Eighty four male farmers were recruited for the study. Structured questionnaire was used to obtain the socio-demographic data. Blood and semen samples were collected from the subjects in the morning for hormonal assays and semen analysis using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method and SQAV sperm quality analyzer. Data were analyzed using chi square, Student's-t-test, and Regression analysis. Results: Serum FSH (p<0.01), LH (p<0.005) and Estradiol (p<0.001) were significantly higher while prolactin (p<0.02) and testosterone (p<0.001) were significantly lower among pesticides exposed farmers than nonexposed subjects. Some 34/84 (40.5%) of the pesticides exposed farmers had serum testosterone levels below the lower limit of the reference range. Those with low testosterone levels (p<0.001), also had FSH (p<0.05), LH (p<0.001) and Estradiol (p<0.002) significantly lower than those with normal testosterone levels. The sperm count among pesticides exposed farmers; total motility and percentage morphology were significantly lower than non-pesticides exposed subjects. Some 14/84 (16.7%) of the pesticides exposed farmers had sperm count below 15 million/mL (oligozoospermia). More than 70% of the farmers were not aware of the reproductive health risks associated with pesticides and only 23.8% of the farmers were using protective devices. Conclusions: Deliberate efforts to improve awareness, knowledge, personal hygiene, and interventions necessary to lessen both pesticides exposure and health risks by adopting safe practices are suggested.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.395-415
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• 2007

The purposes of this study were to investigate the realities of community participation of young farmers and to suggest measures to activate community participation. The data were collected from 234 young farmers from rural Korea. With SPSS 13.0 program for Windows, Frequency, t-test, ANOVA, LSD for post-hoc interpretation and Factor Analysis were employed to analyze the data with statistical significance level of .05. The main results of the study and suggestions were as follows: 1) Young farmers were more likely to participate in watching television on community, discussion with others and internet search for community, while, rural youths were less likely to participate in contacting government and parliament. 2) Difficulties of community participations of young farmers were lack of time and insufficient information about participatory activities. The study suggested that young farmers should get more opportunities to participate in diverse types of active opportunities and practical information.