• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.91-113
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• 2008

This study ultimately aims at suggesting the improvements for community development policy in Korea. In order to do so, this carried out field surveys for two rural villages and tried to find out the current institutional situation of rural villages. Reviewing conceptual debates on rural, village, community and organisation theory, it sets up a typology of four groups as follows: voluntary expressive group, involuntary expressive group, voluntary instrumental group, and involuntary instrumental group. Based on this typology, this study conducted field surveys for two rural villages; Pyeongchon-Ri in Chungnam and Noolmi-Ri in Kyoungbuk. From the analysis on the field surveys, it finds some features on Korean rural groups. First, the residents in rural villages have very strong identity for their living areas. Second, the number of rural groups are tend to decrease recently. Third, the actions of instrumental groups are determined by the organisations operating nearby. Fourth, the function of groups within rural villages only carry out some village festivals, but other friendly relationship among rural residents are expanded out to wider areas called Myeon. As a result, this study suggests that we should recognize the diversity in rural communities in Korea and deals with them in different ways of public policies.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.5-16
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• 2013

Purpose - Micro-finance institutions (MFIs) are critical to Vietnam's quest for poverty alleviation among the poor in the rural and agrarian communities. The current study attempts to investigate the impact of microfinance outreach programs undertaken by formal and semi-formal MFIs in Vietnam targeting the poor rural and agrarian communities. Research design, data, methodology - An enquiry was made as to whether the poor and rural communities accessed the micro credit offered by Government supported MFIs and NGOs through their microfinance outreach programs. Furthermore, the current study attempted to explore if the current mode of operations adopted by MFIs in Vietnam is sustainable. Results -The findings indicate that significant progress has been made in Vietnam to alleviate poverty among the poor rural communities through micro finance outreach programs. Conclusions - There are also pointers of MFIs sustainability in Vietnam. However, it still remains to be seen if the current sustainability pointers are long lasting without government subsidies or some international organizations financial support to microfinance outreach programs.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.51-61
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to conduct an analysis of rural village's community status and consciousness through a questionnaire survey of community leaders and members. Nine types of rural village communities were selected in Korea through a pre-survey of amenity resources data from the Rural Development Administration. Survey items that could determine characteristics of rural village communities were derived from a literature survey of rural village community systems. A questionnaire survey was conducted for 12 Eup-Myeon in Yesan Gun and responses were gathered from 66 community leaders and 1,222 community members. The results derived from the data collected from the community leaders show that 50% percent of rural village communities have been operating for over 25 years, and that community works such as group purchases are carried out based on emotional sympathies between residents. The results derived from the data collected from community members show that on average, community activities are carried out at places that are between 30 and 60 minutes away. Most members are satisfied with regard to the status of their rural village community. A correlation analysis showed that the rural village community satisfaction depended on travel time, community fee, and activity time.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.699-705
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• 2016

Although it has been well known that the Saemaul Undong had a direct relation with the water resources development during 1970's, its contribution to the water resources and increased income in rural communities has not been thoroughly quantified so far. In order to assess the contribution of the Saemaul Undong in terms of rural water resources development, we investigated various historical data produced by the central and local governments in relation to water resources development. The results show the direct and indirect contribution of the Saemaul Undong to the water resources development in rural communities such as sewage works, water supply facilities, shared wells, and river works. The results also showed a positive relation between per-house income in rural communities and areas of irrigated paddies, which were rapidly increased during 1970's. These results can be utilized to transplant the positive aspect of the Saemaul Undong to developing countries focusing on water resources development in rural areas.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.439-461
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• 2009

The aim of this study is to make abolished school utilized to be served for promotion of off-farm incomes, vitality of agriculture and rural communities' economic, i.e. directly related in inhabitants' income. The methods of this study was to classify the types of utilization via analysis of abolished school data base which served by Ministry of Education & Human Resources Development. Moreover, we tried to derive problems of management and the existing system via interview survey of the nation's best 100 executives who utilize abolished school and present active factors of abolished school utilization and improvement directions. Then, we classified types of the idle agricultural land utilization into categories and selected the survey site which were the best on the idle agricultural land. Then, we suggests utilization and improvement directions to the use and management of idle agricultural land for increasing inhabitants' income, vitality of agriculture and rural communities' economic.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1561-1572
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• 2022

Plastic pollution has been recognized as a serious environmental problem, and microbial degradation of plastics is a potential, environmentally friendly solution to this. Here, we analyzed and compared microbial communities on waste plastic films (WPFs) buried for long periods at four landfill sites with those in nearby soils to identify microbes with the potential to degrade plastics. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy spectra of these WPFs showed that most were polyethylene and had signs of oxidation, such as carbon-carbon double bonds, carbon-oxygen single bonds, or hydrogen-oxygen single bonds, but the presence of carbonyl groups was rare. The species richness and diversity of the bacterial and fungal communities on the films were generally lower than those in nearby soils. Principal coordinate analysis of the bacterial and fungal communities showed that their overall structures were determined by their geographical locations; however, the microbial communities on the films were generally different from those in the soils. For the pulled data from the four landfill sites, the relative abundances of Bradyrhizobiaceae, Pseudarthrobacter, Myxococcales, Sphingomonas, and Spartobacteria were higher on films than in soils at the bacterial genus level. At the species level, operational taxonomic units classified as Bradyrhizobiaceae and Pseudarthrobacter in bacteria and Mortierella in fungi were enriched on the films. PICRUSt analysis showed that the predicted functions related to amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism and xenobiotic degradation were more abundant on films than in soils. These results suggest that specific microbial groups were enriched on the WPFs and may be involved in plastic degradation.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.17-24
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• 2009

To ensure the revitalization of rural communities with viable levels of population, various agricultural policies are needed. Attaining this goal demands a comprehensive plan to improve rural housing conditions in general, along with more proactive policies dealing with existing rural housing problems by providing public housing options. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a set of base data which can provide direction when proposing prospective housing policies which comply the peculiar and changing needs of rural communities. To establish the base data, the study reviewed all the relevant issues, requirements and resources in the course of developing rural housing regulations and policies. Some municipal organizations have implemented independent housing programs for returning farmers. They provide one-stop service corners to provide returning farmers comprehensive counseling and information about employment, child-rearing and education, housing, and etc. in their municipals. Agricultural housing projects nowadays focus on promoting voluntary establishments of local communities by providing comprehensive plans for public housing, idyllic housing and other interchange facilities. Recent trends on housing project take into consideration both residential areas and their surrounding landscapes at minimum investment possible. The efficient investment of regional housing development lies in the simultaneous consideration on both the construction and operation and management of housing development from beginning to end.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.49-56
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• 2008

Through a case study on The making of communities driven by citizen autonomy in Cheongju, The study is to figure out how it proceeded and how many were finished by project. These projects completed in 2007 and 2008 for "Campaign of making beautiful communities" were driven by people at community center in Cheongju city. This paper consisted of research on establishment and operation of community center, the developing process of "Campaign of making beautiful communities" and an analysis of each project. This study was based on the interviews of the official of Cheongju city for having ideas about establishment and operation of community center and the developing process of "Campaign of making beautiful communities" and also visits each center for investigating actual programs accomplished.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.253-262
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• 2014

This, an association research for design-improvement and model-development of exhibition shops at rural tourism communities, is to secure objective data by analyzing customers' awareness-tendency of and demand for agricultural-specialty exhibition shops. Survey-questions for finding out consumers' awareness-tendency and demand were determined through brainstorming of a professional council, 30 rural communities of which visit-rate by consumers is considerably high were selected for the recruit of 200 consumers. For investigation and analysis, survey and in-depth interview were carried out at the scene with the application of frequency analysis and summarization of their opinions, which revealed that they have a strong will to visit the rural tourism communities for the purchase of agricultural specialties along with the experience of learning-program and on-the-scene direct dealing and that their viewpoint on the direct dealing at the scene was very positive. Also it was confirmed hat their satisfaction with the purchase of agricultural specialties by on-the-scene direct dealing, their pleasure at the purchase, their satisfaction with services and their intention for re-purchase of them were very high while their satisfaction with the exhibition shops was very low. With on-the-scene survey, the consumers' opinions could be listened to in depth. Almost all of them said their satisfaction with the trip to those rural tourism communities was considerably high since they could go to those communities themselves to relieve the stress from their modern life, to experience healing and to see the goods on the scene. Their satisfaction also was attributed to the fact that they have enough trust in purchase along with feeling the warm-heartedness of rural residents. As to their awareness of exhibition shops, they showed a positive response to the on-the-scene direct dealing at rural communities while they, thinking that the space in those exhibition shops was not sufficiently wide, demanded for more systematic counters in more accessible and affordable exhibition shops so that they might be more satisfied with the exhibition shops. Their demand for the necessity of exhibition shops selling agricultural specialties was found to be over 80%, which indicates that the necessity is very high. As to the suitability of function, they have the opinion that the business at those shops had better be focused on sales since they have the understanding of information when they take a trip to the rural communities, while there was another opinion: since agricultural products are seasonal items they should be exhibited and sold at the same time. More than 90% of the respondents had a positive viewpoint on direct dealing of agricultural specialties on the scene, which showed that their response to it was very high. They preferred the permanent shops equipped with roll-around table-booths. In addition, it was revealed that they want systematic exhibition shops in rural communities because they frequent those communities for on-the-scene direct purchase. The preferred type and opinion resulting from estimation of consumers' demands have been reflected for development of practical designs. The structure of variable principles has been designed so that the types of display-case and table-booth might be created. The result of this study is a positive data as a design model which can be utilized at rural communities and will be commercialized for the verification of its validity.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.1073-1085
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• 2012

Soil microbial communities are immensely diverse and complex with respect to species richness and community size. These communities play essential roles in agricultural soil because they are responsible for most of the nutrient cycles in the soil and influence the plant diversity and productivity. However, the majority of these microbes remain uncharacterized because of poor culturability. Next-generation sequencing techniques have revolutionized many areas of biology by providing cheaper and faster alternatives to Sanger sequencing. Among them, amplicon pyrosequencing is a powerful tool developed by 454 Life Sciences for assessing the diversity of complex microbial communities by sequencing PCR products or amplicons. This review summarizes the current opinions in amplicon sequencing of soil microbial communities, and provides practical guidance and advice on sequence quality control, aligning, clustering, OTU- and taxon-based analysis. The last section of this article includes a few representative studies conducted using amplicon pyrosequencing.