• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.125-129
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• 2011

Environmental risk assessment (RA) is essential prior to the environmental release of GM crops. RA, however, costs at least 7 to 15 million US dollars and requires several years to complete field tests. Therefore, it is strongly suggested that developers of GM crops must consider all criteria for RA at the beginning stage of the development if it aims for commercialization. Previous review papers have pointed out that the "death valley" for the commercialization of GM crops is the screening stage of early GM events since many candidates are given up due to insufficient data on the molecular characterization of a GM event such as inserted gene's copy number, position of inserted site of a chromosome, flanking sequence of recombinant T-DNA, rearrangement of chromosome, and knock out of endogenous gene of host plant. Recently, Rural Development Administration (RDA) in South Korea has launched a Grand National Project named as "Next Generation of BioGreen 21 Project" from 2011 to 2020 and research funding for the development of global GM crops has been allocated to accelerate the commercialization of GM crops. In this regard, I strongly suggest that researchers involved in the development of GM crops for commercialization must conduct RA by themselves at the screening stage of pre-GM event based on the data for molecular characterization.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.83-88
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• 2019

BACKGROUND: In recent years, studies on microplastics have focused on their decomposition in the ocean. However, no studies have been reported on the interaction between microplastics and metal ions in aqueous solutions. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the adsorption capacity of cadmium(Cd) by polypropylene (PP) in aqueous solution. METHODS AND RESULTS: Cadmium adsorption characteristics of PP in aqueous solution were evaluated through various conditions including initial Cd concentration(1.25-25 mg/L), contact time(0.5-24 h), initial pH(2-6) and temperature($20-50^{\circ}C$). Cadmium adsorption fit on PP was well described by Freundlich isotherm model with adsorption capacity(K) of 0.028. The adsorption amount of Cd by PP increased with increasing contact time, indicating that adsorption of PP by Cd was dominantly influenced by contact time. Especially, the removal efficiency of Cd by PP was highest at high temperature. However, the surface functional groups of PP before and after adsorption of Cd were similar, suggesting that adsorption of Cd by PP is not related to surface functional groups. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that PP affects the behavior of Cd in aqueous solution. However, in order to clarify the specific relationship between microplastics and metal ions, mechanism research should be carried out.

• Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 2021

As the world marks the adoption of the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change, a promising movement for carbon neutrality is taking shape. This agreement would be needed to build a truly global coalition for carbon neutrality by 2050. Greenhouse gas(GHGs) emissions from agriculture come from livestock such as cows, agricultural soils and rice production has been reported by 10% in 2019. Rice cultivation would be reduced a GHGs and thus this research has conducted to minimize the emission of greenhouse gas with the mulching methodology using a biodegradable film in dry hill seeded rice and to conserve the environment through a cultural and ecological weed control instead of chemicals. We have developed the 5^th mulching dry hill seeder with the biodegradable film to determine the possibility of stable rice cultivation. There were so many difficulties and constraints in the field operations such as film mulching, hill seeding and effective weed control. The mulching dry hill seeder was so good performance in the 5^th trial but the biodegradable film tested was so faster in terms of biodegradation before the heading stage of the rice plant and thus there was not highly effective weed control which is ongoing research with a good performance since 2020.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.17 no.sup
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• pp.51-60
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• 2011

The objective of this study was to suggest strategies for improving "Livestock Manure Treatment Systems and Related Technologies Assessment Program". Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to evaluate reasonableness of applied weight value for assessment and improve program management strategies. Results of mail survey collected from animal manure treatment technology specialists of 30 companies nationwide were used for AHP. Company's ability, technological prowess, facility's convenience, economic feasibility are four important aspects of assessment program evaluation using AHP. More than 70% of the respondents said they were overall satisfied with the objectivity of assessment program regarding above four evaluation aspects. However, only 36% of them answered that they were very satisfied with the objectivity of assessment program in terms of economic feasibility. The evaluation results revealed that the assessment program needs to be made up for the weak points regarding economic feasibility. The AHP weight calculation results showed that the current assessment program overestimates the technological prowess, especially livestock manure treatment efficiency. It suggests that the weight value of current assessment program in terms of technological prowess needs to be determined carefully. The current assessment program combined with AHP weight value determination approach will be very useful to improve objectivity and reliability of assessment.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2007

The use of information on natural resources is indispensable to most agricultural activities to avoid disasters, to improve input efficiency, and to increase lam income. Most information is prepared and managed at a spatial scale called the "Hydrologic Unit" (HU), which means watershed or small river basin, because virtually every environmental problem can be handled best within a single HU. South Korea consists of 840 such watersheds and, while other watershed-specific information is routinely managed by government organizations, there are none responsible for agricultural weather and climate. A joint research team of Kyung Hee University and the Agriculture, forestry and Fisheries Information Service has begun a 4-year project funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and forestry to establish a watershed-specific agricultural weather information service based on "high definition" digital climate maps (HD-DCMs) utilizing the state of the art geospatial climatological technology. For example, a daily minimum temperature model simulating the thermodynamic nature of cold air with the aid of raster GIS and microwave temperature profiling will quantify effects of cold air drainage on local temperature. By using these techniques and 30-year (1971-2000) synoptic observations, gridded climate data including temperature, solar irradiance, and precipitation will be prepared for each watershed at a 30m spacing. Together with the climatological normals, there will be 3-hourly near-real time meterological mapping using the Korea Meteorological Administration's digital forecasting products which are prepared at a 5 km by 5 km resolution. Resulting HD-DCM database and operational technology will be transferred to local governments, and they will be responsible for routine operations and applications in their region. This paper describes the project in detail and demonstrates some of the interim results.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.84-91
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• 2002

Disease forecasting in Korea was first studied in the Department of Fundamental Research, in the Central Agricultural Technology Institute in Suwon in 1947, where the dispersal of air-borne conidia of blast and brown spot pathogens in rice was examined. Disease forecasting system in Korea is operated based on information obtained from 200 main forecasting plots scattered around country (rice 150, economic crops 50) and 1,403 supplementary observational plots (rice 1,050, others 353) maintained by Korean government. Total number of target crops and diseases in both forecasting plots amount to 30 crops and 104 diseases. Disease development in the forecasting plots is examined by two extension agents specialized in disease forecasting, working in the national Agricul-tural Technology Service Center(ATSC) founded in each city and prefecture. The data obtained by the extension agents are transferred to a central organization, Rural Development Administration (RDA) through an internet-web system for analysis in a nation-wide forecasting program, and forwarded far the Central Forecasting Council consisted of 12 members from administration, university, research institution, meteorology station, and mass media to discuss present situation of disease development and subsequent progress. The council issues a forecasting information message, as a result of analysis, that is announced in public via mass media to 245 agencies including ATSC, who informs to local administration, the related agencies and farmers for implementation of disease control activity. However, in future successful performance of plant disease forecasting system is thought to be securing of excellent extension agents specialized in disease forecasting, elevation of their forecasting ability through continuous trainings, and furnishing of prominent forecasting equipments. Researches in plant disease forecasting in Korea have been concentrated on rice blast, where much information is available, but are substan-tially limited in other diseases. Most of the forecasting researches failed to achieve the continuity of researches on specialized topic, ignoring steady improvement towards practical use. Since disease forecasting loses its value without practicality, more efforts are needed to improve the practicality of the forecasting method in both spatial and temporal aspects. Since significance of disease forecasting is directly related to economic profit, further fore-casting researches should be planned and propelled in relation to fungicide spray scheduling or decision-making of control activities.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.67 no.1
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• pp.27-40
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• 2022

Building self-sustainable rural infrastructure and environment through smart digital agriculture technology innovation is one of the major goals of the Korean agricultural administration as a part of the nation's 4^th industry revolution. To identify areas for improving and effectively investing in the acceleration of rural development, 207 experts in the areas of crop science and smart digital agriculture technology were interviewed for their opinions and suggestions on 22 questions designed to recognize fundamental agricultural issues to be addressed and solutions to advance technology innovation and rural development. Majority of the participants expected smart digital agriculture technologies to resolve major agricultural issues and help build a better rural environment. To overcome technology gaps and resolve issues more effectively, further investment in training new technology experts and building stronger agricultural technology infrastructure is urgent, and persistent and systematic support from agricultural administration appears to be the key for accelerating the process. While the leading global groups of both public and private sectors have advanced their technologies beyond the field application stage, most of the Korean technologies remain at the early pilot stage. Aging population and lack of labor in rural areas, unknown future climate change, and challenges in sustainable rural development are expected to be resolved by smart digital agriculture technologies. Technological innovations by research institutes should be promptly deployed in the crop production field, and farm training systemically organized by local technology centers can accelerate farming revolution. Standardization of equipment and data systems is another key to the success of digitalization of food crop production and food supply chains nationwide.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.190-198
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• 2008

There is an increasing concern over heavy metal contamination of paddy soils and the subsequent translocation of heavy metals to rice. Objective is to monitor the status and long-term trend of heavy metal contamination in paddy soils, periodically. In 2007 survey, the average concentrations of As(arsenic), Cd(cadmium), Cu(copper), Ni(nickel), Pb(lead), and Zn(zinc) in 2,010 paddy soils nationwide were 0.87, 0.08, 3.33, 1.19, 4.95 and $4.67mg\;kg^{-1}$, respectively. Few sites, which were contaminated by As in 2003 and 2007 survey and by Ni in 1999 and 2007 survey, were over the threshold level for soil contamination designated by the Soil Environmental Conservation Act in Korea. Long-term change was shown that As, Ni, and Zn were gradually increased whereas Cd and Cu were decreased. In the distribution of extractable heavy metal contents, the modes of each heavy metal content were similar with the average contents of each heavy metals. Mean value of heavy metals except copper in paddy soils was higher than median value. It means that the downward distribution of heavy metal content in paddy rice was shown against normal distribution.