A New Direction and Its Challenges for Linkage of Agricultural Research and Extension As a Traditional Knowledge Development in Rural Korea: Agricultural Knowledge Systems

농업지식체계 구축에 의한 전통지식개발 방법으로서의 농업연구지도 연계의 방향

The study uses agricultural knowledge system theory to explore how traditional knowledge applies to the linkage system of agricultural research and extension in rural Korea. By agricultural knowledge system we emphasize the dynamic networks of actors, processes of negotiation, and the diverse ways in which knowledge is constructed and performed. The knowledge systems reflect the idea that the boundaries between knowledge groups are not closed and that there could be considerable overlap between knowledge system. The results of this study are the following : First, we should know that some extension agents clearly value farmer knowledge and try to facilitate farmer-to-farmer communication. Extension plays a significant role in the knowledge-creation process and shaping communities because knowledge processes are embedded in social processes that involve aspects of power, authority, and legitimization. Third, the constructions of agricultural knowledge systems thus include social interactions, communication, and the diverse processes individuals employ create, use, and evaluate multiple types and sources of information through the linkage between agricultural colleges and Rural Development Administration (RDA), establishing the research institution of research and extension linkage, exchange research agent with extension agent, and bottom-up approach. Second, we should know that the focus of traditional knowledge development is rural community development as a community process. Nowadays the sessions of the Intergovernmental Committee of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) cover two lines of inquiry, which are the use of existing standards of intellectual property for the protection of traditional knowledge and that of new legal standards, eventually in the from of sui generis mechanisms of protection.