Abstract
Interest in weekend farming has been increasing recently among city-dwellers although it is still only in the beginning stages. Weekend farming has been increasing recently among city-dwellers although it is still only in the beginning stages. Weekend farms provide people with new activities and also help to preserve green areas within the city. It is necessary to understand what weekend farm users think and what problems they encounter in order to increase the use of these farms. For this reason, we studied 16 weekend farms in Seoul managed by the Rural Guidance Office and the Agricultural Cooperative. We distributed 24 questionnaires by hand and these were later returned by mail. The questionnaire asked weekend farmers about their motivation for using the farms, about their motivation for using the farms, frequency of use, level of satisfaction, current state of housing and the sort of plants they cultivated, among other things. We found that most of them live in apartments and have little access to green areas,. Weekend farm users were generally satisfied. However, they had a lack of gardening knowledge and reported that facilities such as toilets and water service were unsatisfactory. Political support is needed from the government in order to improve weekend farms. There needs to be a wider range of farm sizes and an increase in the uses of the farms. If these improvements occur, investment in and the development of weekend farming will increase and weekend farms will take root in Korea.
