• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.551-561
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• 2021

Background and objective: Vietnam is prioritizing agricultural production for food export capacity in all national policies. As a result, for three decades, its agriculture has been making quite many remarkable achievements. Methods: The most successful one is that the nation has become one of the world's leading rice exporters and ensures its national food security. Through these endeavors, the Mekong River Delta (MRD), in particular, has emerged as a key region in ensuring national food security and rice export. Results: The new era can now see Vietnamese agriculture turning to place special emphasis on commodity quality and the improvement of the living environment. This is evidenced, for example, by the phenomenon that the MRD, as a rice basket of the whole country, is making moves back to nature-based agriculture with attempts to restore the natural ecology, including preserving and restoring local traditional rice seeds, adopting natural farming practices and minimizing the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Conclusion: The case studies of nature-based farming practices in the MRD indicate that, while the national agriculture is generally developing large-scale production, the small-scale farming in the region, integrated with tourist and educational activities on-site, is meeting the demands of a highly potential domestic niche market. Moreover, this model appears to be a sustainable farming approach that defines itself as a working green livelihood for the region.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.35-47
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• 2024

The aim of this study was to analyze the income and productivity of seaweed farmers based on farmed land ownership status. This research was conducted in three provinces on the Sulawesi Island which are ranked among the 10 largest seaweed producers in Indonesia: Central Sulawesi, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi. The twelve study sites were determined based on 5 special criteria and 792 respondents fulfilled the criteria for seaweed farmers. Data were collected through field surveys and analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods. Results showed that the seaweed farming areas are considered as private property with 4 types of marine land tenure or ownership status: own land, inherited land, leasehold land and purchased land. The productivity of seaweed farming land had a positive value greater than 1 in South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi, and a positive value of less than 1 in Central Sulawesi. Seaweed cultivation in Central Sulawesi has not been managed effectively. At all sites, the maximum number of growing season cycles was 5 cycles/year. Optimal growing season conditions gave the highest marginal returns at 2-3 cycles/year with additional costs exceeding additional income for more than 3 cycles/year.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.311-317
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• 2017

The aim of this study is to investigate the environmental properties of paddy soils depending on farming methods and seasonal variation. The paddy soils in 11 plots of conventional paddy and 24 plots of organic paddy were sampled and analyzed in four season of March, May, August, and October. The obtained data of soil properties were used for statistical analysis. Analysis of variance showed that only $NH_4-N$ and $P_2O_5$ were significantly different depending on farming methods. However, the differences of all soil properties depending on seasonal variation were strongly significant. Principal component analysis also presented that nitrogen and phosphorus concentration in soils were more significantly influenced by seasonal variation than farming method. Electric conductivity in soil was decreased from March to October. Amounts of soil organic matter in August and October were higher than that in March and May. T-N was decreased from March to October. $NH_4-N$ and $NO_3-N$ in the soil of both conventional and organic paddy were higher in May than other seasons. T-P concentration was found to be highest in August, but $P_2O_5$ concentration was lowest in August. It can be concluded that seasonal variation should be considered for analysis and comparison of soil environmental properties.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.107-116
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• 2020

Up to date, the majority research on the major landscape elements in organic farming has been mainly focused on the practice of seeking efficiency. The problem is that this type of study contributes to polluting the agricultural environment and damaging the ecological circulation system. As an alternative, there is a growing body of research on organic farming, but it is not widely applied that research on how to manage the landscape considering the scenic characteristics of farming villages practicing organic farming. Therefore, this study was carried out in the conservative aspects of rural landscapes in order to effectively manage the landscape of organic agriculture and, intended to be used to maintain and preserve natural and ecologically harmonious landscapes by deriving management methods suitable for landscape elements targeting the major landscape elements of the organic farming complex. To carry out, this study performed the experts survey which is composed of 13 major landscape elements, including rice paddies and fields, monoculture and diverse crops, dirt roads, windbreak trees, accent planting, dum-bung(small pond), natural small river, natural waterways, plastic film houses, one-storied houses, and pavilion. As a result, Farm land was formed in a square shape, concentrated in an independent space, planted companion plants around the crop, and covered with plants to manage the borders. As for the surrounding environment, it was analyzed that the aspart road system circulating through the village, the evergreen broad-leaved windbreak forest around the cultivated land, and the accent plant located at the entrance of the village were suitable. The hydrological environment consists of Round small pond made of stone in an open space, natural rivers around the village, and natural channels around the farmland, and The Major facilities are suitable for greenhouses that are shielded by plants in independent regions, and wooden duck houses located inside the cultivation area are suitable and The settlement facilities were analyzed to be suitable for single-story brick houses located in independent residential areas, pavilion located with greenery in the center of the village, and educational spaces shielded with wood from arable land. If supplementary evaluation criteria suitable for the management of organic farming landscape are additionally supplemented based on the results derived from this study, It is expected to enhance the landscape value of ecologically superior organic farming.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.42 no.spc
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• pp.57-61
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• 2009

To clarify the impact of the rice-duck farming system on the regional environment and the surrounding, a case study was carried out at Hongdong Reservoir valley of Hongdong-myeon and Janggok-myeon, Hongseong-gun, Chungcheongnam-do where the density of livestock grazing is the highest and rice cultivation with the rice-duck farming system is extensively practiced. The soil characteristics and water qualities at paddy fields were compared between two rice cultivation methods of rice-duck farming system and conventional farming system. The organic matters and available phosphate contents in soil of paddy fields where the rice-duck farming system was practiced were higher than those of paddy fields where conventional farming system was practiced. However, the available phosphate content was lower than the optimum for rice cultivation and the mean concentration of paddy soil in Korea. The surface water quality of the paddy field with the rice-duck farming system was practiced had higher EC (137 %), $COD_{Cr}$ (220 %), T-N (172 %), and T-P (226 %) contents than that with the conventional farming system was practiced. Especially, $COD_{Cr}$ and T-P were more than 2 times higher, which tells that the possibility of water pollution by drainage water of paddy field is higher in the paddy fields with the rice-duck farming system practiced than in those with the conventional farming practiced. The higher contents of T-P and $COD_{Cr}$ in surface water at the paddy field of rice-duck farming system practiced were directly caused by soil particles in the muddy water. Consequently, it is necessary to thoroughly manage the irrigation and drainage system of rice-duck farming system practiced to prevent outflow of surface water from paddy and pollution of surrounding water system.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.127-140
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• 1998

Organic farming excludes any use of the herbicide. The present paper reviews what can be done for effective weed control with existing weed control technology by farmers crop-ping paddy rice, field crops, vegetables, and fruit trees. If condition of the crop-land-al-lows diversified rotational use of the paddy land as paddy and upland field would minimize weed problem. Practising this is limited in acreage due to extremely limited governmental investment to the land for the purpose. Secondly, rotation of crops in the upland field breaking life cycles of various weeds adapted to each crop should reduce the weed problem. This is also limited as only a few crops are making the farmer profitable. In addition climate and tolerance of crops to high and low temperature. Monsoon rains and poor drainage restrict the freedom of choice. For any crop land year-round multiple cropping in denser planting shall lessen the weed problem, this multiple cropping practiced by 1960s has been abandoned due to laborshortage and increased production cost. Deep flooding the rice is impractical at present in Korean. Mulching crop with transparent, black , or combinated polyethylene sheet, hs been in-creasingly used. Progresses in development and use of mulch with allelopathic crop residues. inexpensive paper mulch, allelopathic crop residues, inexpensive paper mulch, allelopathic crop cultivar development, recently developed ex-perimental weeding machinaries, flamers, microbial herbicides, biological control organisms, soil sterilization techniques have been critically reviewed for their adoption into existing in-tegrated weeding system. Unfortunately, information on cost-benifit, and labor-benefit, for the various methods above mentioned are lacking. Urgent need for the research on rational weeding in organic farming, and herbicide low-input farming is emphasized.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.933-942
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• 2010

Objective: To develop an ergonomic evaluation tool which can be apply to assess the lower-limb postures associated with farming tasks. Background: In general, most of existing ergonomic assessment tools was developed to investigate the work-related musculoskeletal disorders of the upper-limb postures in manufacturing industry. Methods: As the first step of development of the evaluation tool, 13 lower-limb postures that were commonly observed in farming task were investigated by the subjective discomfort ratings, heart rates, and muscle activities. And then, an ergonomic evaluation tool for the lower-limb postures was developed based on results of the first experiment. Lastly, the ergonomic checklist which was developed in the current study was compared with other existing ergonomic assessment tools. Results: Based on the results of comparisons between a newly developed assessment tool and other existing assessment tools, it was found that a newly developed tool can perceive more sensitively for the various lower-limb postures than other assessment tools. Conclusions: Lower-limb posture assessment tool which can evaluate and assess risks of lower-limb WMSDs which were prevalent in farming tasks more easily and accurately was developed in this study. The lower-limb assessment tool can also be utilized to prevent WMSDs related with lower-limbs as well as improve working environments.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.297-311
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• 2012

Since 1997, Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy and Ministry of Environment have established data on some 400 basic raw and subsidiary materials and process like energy, petro-chemical, steel, cement, glass, paper, construction materials, transportation, recycling and disposal etc by initiating establishment of LCI database. Regarding agriculture, Rural Development Administration has conducted establishment of LCI database for major farm products like rice, barley, beans, cabbage and radish etc from 2009, and released that they would establish LCI database for 50 items until 2020 later on. The domestic LCI database for seeds, seedling, agrochemical, inorganic fertilizer and organic fertilizer etc is only at initial stage of establishment, so overseas LCI databases are brought and being used. However, since the domestic and overseas natural environments differ, they fall behind in reliability. Therefore, this study has the purpose to select organic farming materials, survey the production process for various types of organic farming materials and establish LCI database for the effects of greenhouse gas emitted during the process in order to select carbon basic units for agricultural production system compliant in domestic situation instead of relying on overseas data and apply life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emitted by each crop during the process. As for selecting methods, in this study organic farming materials were selected in the method of direct observation of material and bottom-up method a survey method with focus on the organic farming materials admitted into rice production. For the basic unit of carbon emission amount by the production of 1kg of organic farming material, the software PASS 4.1.1 developed by Korea Accreditation Board under Ministry of Knowledge Economy was used. The study had the goal to ultimately provide basic unit to calculate carbon emission amount in executing many institutions like goal management system and carbon performance display system etc in agricultural sector to be conducted later on. As a result, emission basic units per 1kg of production were calculated to be 0.0088kg-$CO_2$ for charcoal, 0.1319kg-$CO_2$ for grass liquid, and 0.2804kg-$CO_2$ for microbial agent.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.137-142
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• 2018

The aim of this paper was to analyze the determinants of farm household income in the Gyeongbuk province. Data from 5,254 villages in the Gyeongbuk province were used. The main results are as follows. First, the percentage of self-supporting villages for fishing villages was 10.8%, which was higher than the average of 6.4%; however, the percentage of self-supporting villages for mountain villages was only 2.7 percent. Second, the level of income was estimated to positively correlate with the ratio of the roof improvement rate, a sisterhood relationship, farming households, and the number of people under the age of 14. Finally, the results show that variables such as age, farming percentage, roof improvement ratio, and a sisterhood relationship were significant. When the percentage for the roof improvement ratio was higher, the ratio for a sisterhood relationship with another city was higher, and when the proportion of farmers was higher, the average income of the village was higher. Based on the results from the above analysis, the following policy implications are suggested. First, the income levels of rural villages in the 1970s are related to the Saemaul project in Korea. In other words, the Saemaul project contributed to improving the farming household income by direct and indirect methods. Second, it can be seen that it is important to develop policies that take into account different village types within rural areas.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.303-306
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• 2003

This survey was carried out to investigate the chemical characteristics of ground water for livestock purpose and to estimate the influence of ground water quality by livestock farming. Water samples were collected three times in 2000, and analyzed for theirs chemical compositions using Korean Standard Methods for Water Quality. The EC of ground water was from 0.214 to 0.474 dS/m. $NO_3-N$ contamination range was from 3.56 to 11.81. The $SO_4{^{2-}}$ was $4.31{\sim}69.37mg/L$ and CI was $12.75{\sim}41.46mg/L$. The data of ground water quality indicated suitable quality for livestock. Also, the concentration of heavy metals in the sample could not make damage to the animals. The $NO_3-N$ concentration of the water by times are as follows: October (8.19 mg/L) > July (7.65 mg/L) > April (4.04 mg/L) with no significant differences during the livestock farming period. The average quality of groundwater for livestock is good for its purpose, and it was showed there was few influence by livestock farming.