• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.119-126
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• 2003

Nitrate-N concentrations and the corresponding ${\delta}^{15}N$ values were determined with water samples collected periodically from artesian wells (3 and 6 m deep), underdrainage and gushout waters in a Welsh onion cultivated area in the Kushibiki Fan, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Average $NO_3-N$ concentrations in waters from 3 and 6 m wells were 25.7 and $2.8mg\;L^{-1}$, whereas ${\delta}^{15}N$ values were 3.6 and 4.7‰, respectively. The $NO_3-N$ concentration and ${\delta}^{15}N$ value of the underdrainge water were $35.5mg\;L^{-1}$ and 6.6‰, reflecting rapid input of chemical fertilizers and farmyard manure. The mean values of $NO_3-N$ concentration and ${\delta}^{15}N$ in the gushout water flown out of the edge of Kushibiki Fan were $19.4mg\;L^{-1}$ and 7.9‰, respectively. As a results the ${\delta}^{15}N$ values of the gushout water were higher than those of the artesian wells and underdrinage water. The ${\delta}^{15}N$ values of total-N and $NO_3-N$ of the soils were 6.1 and 5.10‰, respectively, while those for nitrification-inhibitor containing fertilizer and slow-release fertilizers were -6.1 and -2.2‰, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.297-316
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• 2018

The golden apple snail (GAS, Pomacea canaliculata) is an invasive freshwater snail. The GAS was introduced in Korea without prior studies on the possibility of crop damage or its impact on the natural ecosystem. The freshwater apple snails can be found typically in ponds, rice paddies, irrigation canals, roadside ditches or slower portions of streams. In this study, we were carried out to investigate the assessment of physiological and ecological characteristics, environmental characteristics inhabited area in winter season and cause of massive death at one time of golden apple snails used for weed control in wet rice paddies. The GAS was introduced from Japan to Korea for commercial production as a dietary protein supplement. The golden apple snail was also used a recently for weed control in wet rice cultivation. The species of freshwater Pomacea snails is belonging to the genus Pomacea, family ampulariidae, order mesogastropoda, subclass pulmonata, class gastropoda, phylum mollusca. The GAS spread into irrigation ditches and natural waterways. It is now distributed in ponds and canals near rice fields of southern parts of the country and has overwintered. It increases its cold hardiness before winter. However, the physiological mechanism of cold hardiness in molluscs is poorly understood, especially in freshwater molluscs. Our results on physio-ecological characteristics of the Pomacea apple snail showed that the ratio of males to females was 1: 1.99~2.33. The daily growth was 87.7 mg in weight, 0.31 mm in height and 0.33 mm in width of the their shell. On the other hand, the golden apple snails were very high to resistance on drying condition and survived rate about 80% up to 3 months. The inhabitation of GAS was no statistical significant impacts on the water quality. An important property of aqueous solutions is agricultural water quality because it affects chemical and biochemical properties such as chemical reactions, equilibrium conditions, and biological toxicity. The death rate of weed control apple snails by Ostracoda (Stenocypris hislopi) was only 2.86% and 5.71% depending on the density. Therefore, GAS was not a direct death caused by Ostracoda (Stenocypris hislopi).

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.93-101
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• 2010

For the study of possibility of practical use as an organic farm materials of the mixtures with lignite and amino acid solution, this experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of the mixtures on the growth and the yield of rice plant, chinese cabbage, and red pepper, and the effects of the mixtures on chemical properties of soil. Also, when the mixtures of the lignite plus amino acid solution and the chemical fertilizer were applied to these three crop cultivation area, authors want to know how can the loss in quantity of chemical fertilizer affects the growth and the yield of these crops. As the results, growth of rice plant applied with the mixtures of lignite and amino acid solution was better than that applied with the recommended rate of chemical fertilizer. Especially, the growth of rice plant appeared to be good at the treatment of 150 kg/ha of the mixed lignite with amino acid solution and at that of its mixtures and standard fertilization. Growth of chinese cabbage and red pepper was good at the application of 600 kg/ha of the mixed lignite with amino acid solution and at that of its mixtures and standard fertilization. Yield of rice and chinese cabbage was good at the treatment of 150 kg/ha of the mixed lignite with amino acid solution and at that of its mixtures and standard fertilization, and yield of red pepper was good at the application of 600 kg/ha of the mixed lignite with amino acid solution and at that of its mixtures and standard fertilization. The organic matter content increased and while the exchangeable cation decreased when the lignite mixed with amino acid solution and the loss in quantity of chemical fertilizer applied at paddy field. Incase of these treatments, pH and available phosphorus increase at upland field, but did not change at paddy field.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.102-107
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• 2012

This study was carried out to investigate the optimum soil environmental conditions of ten contents on production of high quality fruit in 'Hongro' apple. The soil and fruit characteristics were analyzed at total 60 orchards in major apple producing areas such as Chungju, Moonkyeung, Yeongju, Andong, Yeosan and Yeongcheon (10 orchards an area). The soil environmental factors affected fruit weight were the highest relative contribution in saturated hydraulic conductivity of 33.3%. The cation was 24.6%, the bulk density, soil texture and solid phase were also high as relative contribution. The fruit weight was influenced by soil physical properties more than soil chemical properties. The soil environmental factors affected sugar content were highest soil texture of 21.9%, and the CEC and bulk density were low as relative contribution. The fruit coloring was the highest relative contribution in phosphate of 55.9%. While saturated hydraulic conductivity and organic matter content were low. The coloring was influenced by soil chemical properties more than soil physical properties. Fruit coloring was high influenced over 70% by soil physical properties. Finally, relative contribution on fruit quality related with sugar content, fruit weight, and coloring were high influenced by cultivation layer depth of 25.8%, soil texture 22.2%, and soil pH of 21.0% but bulk density and solid phase were low relative contribution. The fruit growth and soil chemical properties in 'Hongro' apple were very closely related. Therefore, orchard soil management to produce high quality fruit was very importance drainage management and organic matter application. We concluded that scientific soil management is possible by quanlifiable of soil management factors.

• Weed & Turfgrass Science
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.86-108
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• 2017

The nationwide weed survey was conducted in arable land, paddy field, upland, orchard and pasture, over whole country of Korea during 3 years from 2013 to 2015. Also, these survey were conducted in order to determine a change of weed community and to identify a major dominant weed species, and problem weeds. Weeds of arable land were composed of 619 species belonging to 81 families. Weeds occurred in paddy field were 90 species belonging to 28 families, upland weeds were 375 species of 50 families, orchard weeds were 492 species of 63 families and pasture weeds 275 species of 52 families. Among total 81 families, the Asteraceae (15.5%) was the biggest family, followed by Poaceae (13.1%), Fabaceae (5.5%), Cyperaceae (5.2%), Polygonaceae (6.3%), respectively. And these weed species were composed of annual weeds of 209 species (33.8%), winter annual of 102 species (16.4%) and perennial weeds of 308 species (49.8%). Exotic weeds naturalized in Korea were investigated as 166 species. Weed flora in Korean cultivation area have been increased as much as 13 families and 186 species for 10 years compared to 2000~2004 weed survey result of 68 families and 433 species. The increment could be resulted from the change of weed population such as increase of the herbicide-resistant and the difference of investigation method.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.171-188
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• 1977

The response and effect on main upland crops to potassium were discussed and summarized as follows. 1. Adequate average amounts of potash per 10a were 32kg for forage crop; 22.5kg for vegetable crops; 17.3kg for fruit trees; 13.3kg for potatoes; and 6.5kg for cereal crops. Demand of potassium fertilizer in the future will be increased by expanding the acreage of forage crops, vegetable crops and fruit trees. 2. On the average, optimum potash rates on barley, wheat, soybean, corn, white potato and sweet potato were 6.5, 6.9, 4.5, 8.1, 8.9, and 17.7kg per 10a respectively. Yield increaments per 1kg of potash per 10a were 4-5kgs on the average for cereal crops, 68kg for white potato, and 24kg for sweet potato. 3. According to the soil testing data, the exchangeable potassium in the coastal area was higher than that in the inland area and medium in the mountainous area. The exchangeable potassium per province in decreasing order is Jeju>Jeonnam>Kangweon>Kyongnam. Barley : 4. The response of barley to an adequate rate of potassium seemed to be affected more by differences in climatic conditions than to the nature of the soil. 5. The response and the adequate rate of potassium in the southern area, where the temperature is higher, were low because of more release of potassium from the soil. However, the adequate rate of phosphorus was increased due to the fixation of applied phosphorus into the soil in high temperature regions. The more nitrogen application would be required in the southern area due to its high precipitation. 6. The average response of barley to potassium was lower in the southern provinces than northern provinces. Kyongsangpukdo, a southern province, showed a relatively higher response because of the low exchangeable potassium content in the soil and the low-temperature environment in most of cultivation area. 7. Large annual variations in the response to and adequate rates of potassium on barley were noticed. In a cold year, the response of barley to potassium was 2 to 3 times higher than in a normal year. And in the year affected by moisture and drought damage, the responses to potassium was low but adequate rates was higher than cold year. 8. The content of exchangeable potassium in the soil parent materials, in increasing order was Crystalline Schist, Granite, Sedimentary and Basalt. The response of barley to potash occurred in the opposite order with the smallest response being in Crystalline Schist soil. There was a negative correlation between the response and exchangeable potassium contents but there was nearly no difference in the adequate rates of potassium. 9. Exchangeable potassium according to the mode of soil deposition was Alluvium>Residium>Old alluvium>Valley alluvium. The highest response to potash was obtained in Valley alluvium while the other s showed only small differences in responses. 10. Response and adequate rates of potassium seemed to be affected greatly by differences in soil texture. The response to potassium was higher in Sandy loam and Loam soils but the optimum rate of potassium was higher in Clay and Clay loam. Especially when excess amount of potassium was applied in Sandy loam and Loam soils the yield was decreased. 11. The application of potassium retarded the heading date by 1.7 days and increased the length of culm. the number of spikelet per plant, the 1,000 grain weight and the ratio of grain weight to straw. Soybean : 12. Average response of soybean to potassium was the lowest among other cereal crops but 28kg of grain yield was incrased by applying potash at 8kg/10a in newly reclaimed soils. 13. The response in the parent materials soil was in the order of Basalt (Jeju)>Sedimentay>Granite>Lime stone but this response has very wide variations year to year. Corn : 14. The response of corn to potassium decreased in soils where the exchangeable potassium content was high. However, the optimum rate of applied potassium was increased as the soil potassium content was increased because corn production is proportional to the content of soil potassium. 15. An interaction between the response to potassium and the level of phosphorus was noted. A higher response to potassium and higher rates of applied potassium was observed in soils contained optimum level of phosphorus. Potatoes : 16. White potato had a higher requirement for nitrogen than for potassium, which may imply that potato seems to have a higher capability of soil potassium uptake. 17. The yield of white potato was higher in Sandy loam than in Clay loam soil. Potato yields were also higher in soils where the exchangeable potassium content was high even in the same soil texture. However, the response to applied potassium was higher in Clay loam soils than in Sandy loam soils and in paddy soil than in upland soil. 18. The requirement for nitrogen and phosphorus by sweet potato was relatively low. The sweet potato yield is relatively high even under unfavorable soil conditions. A characteristics of sweet potatoes is to require higher level of potassium and to show significant responses to potassium. 19. The response of sweet potato to potassium varied according to soil texture. Higher yields were obtained in Sandy soil, which has a low exchangeable potassium content, by applying sufficient potassium. 20. When the optimum rate of potassium was applied, the yields of sweet potato in newly reclaimed soil were comparable to that in older upland soils.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.17-26
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• 2010

Recently concerns have been raised due to the unbalanced supply of crops: the price of crops has been unstable and at one point the price went up so high that the word Agflation(agriculture+ inflation) was coined. Korea, in particular, is a small-sized country and needs to secure the stable supply of crops by investing in the produce importation at a national level. Investment in foreign produce importation is becoming more important as a measure for sufficient supply of crops, limited supply of domestic crops, weakened farming conditions worldwide, as well as recent changes in the use of crops due to the development of bio-fuels, influence of carbon emission on crops, the price increase in crops, and influx of foreign hot money. However, there are many problems with investing in foreign produce importation: lack of support from the government; lack of farming information and technology; difficulty in securing the capital; no immediate pay-off from the investment and insufficient management. Although foreign produce is originally more price-competitive than domestic produce, it loses its competiveness in the process of importation (due to high tariffs) and poor distribution system, which makes it difficult to sell in Korea. Therefore, investment in foreign produce importation is being questioned for feasibility; to make it possible, foreign produce must maintain the price-competitiveness. Especially, harvest of agricultural products depends on natural and geographical conditions of each country and those products have indigenous properties, so distribution system according to import and export of agricultural products should be treated more carefully than that of other industries. Distribution costs are differentiated into each item and include cost of sorting and wrapping, cost of wrapping materials, cost of domestic transport, cost of international transport and cost of clearing customs for import and export. So transporting and storing agricultural products generates considerable costs compared with other products. Also, due to upgrade of dietary life, needs for stability, taste and visible quality toward food including agricultural products are being raised and wrong way of storage causes decomposition of food and loss of freshness, making the storage more difficult than that in room temperature, so storage and transport in distribution of agricultural products needs specialty. In addition, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. However, existing distribution system of agricultural products is exposed to various problems including problems in distribution channel, making distribution and strategy for distribution and those problems are as follows. First, in case of investment in overseas agricultural industry, stable supply of the products is difficult because areas of production are dispersed widely and influenced by outer factors due to including overseas distribution channels. Also, at the aspect of quality, standardization of products is difficult, distribution system is quite complicated and unreasonable due to long distribution channels according to international trade and financial and institutional support is not enough. Especially, there are quite a lot of ineffective factors including multi level distribution process, dramatic gap between production cost and customer's cost, lack of physical distribution facilities and difficulties in storage and transport due to lack of wrapping containers. Besides, because import and export of agricultural products has been manages under the company's own distribution according to transaction contract between manufacturers and exporting company, efficiency is low due to excessive investment in fixed costs and lack of specialty in dealing with agricultural products causes fall of value of products, showing the limit to lose price-competitiveness. Especially, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. Second, among tangible and intangible services which promote the efficiency of the whole distribution, a function building distribution environment which includes distribution information, system for standard and inspection, distribution finance, system for diversification of risks, education and training, distribution administration and tax system is wanted. In general, such a function building distribution environment is difficult to be changed and supplement innovatively because its effect compared with investment does not appear immediately despite of its necessity. Especially, in case of distribution of agricultural products, as a function of collecting and distributing is performed individually through various channels, the importance of distribution information and standardization is getting more focus due to the problem of repetition of work and lack of specialty. Also, efficient management of distribution is quite difficult due to lack of professionals in distribution, so support to professional education is needed. Third, though effort to keep self-sufficiency ratio of staple food, rice is regarded as important at the government level, level of dependency on overseas of others crops is high. Therefore, plan for stable securing food resources aside from staple food is also necessary. Especially, governmental organizations of agricultural products distribution in Korea are production-centered and have unreasonable structure whose function at the aspect of distribution and consumption is quite insufficient. And development of new distribution channels which can deal with changes in distribution environment and they do not achieve actual results of strategy for distribution due to non-positive strategy for price distribution. That is, it implies the possibility that base for supply will become vulnerable because it does not mediate appropriate interests on total distribution channels such as manufacturers, wholesale dealers and vendors by emphasizing consumer protection excessively in the distribution of agricultural products. Therefore, this study examined fundamental concept and actual situation for our investment to overseas agriculture, drew necessities, considerations, problems, etc. of overseas agricultural investment and suggested improvements at the level of distribution for price competitiveness of agricultural products cultivated in overseas under five aspects; government's indirect support, distribution's modernization and distribution information function's strengthening, government's political support for distribution facility, transportation route, load and unloading works' improvement, price competitiveness' securing, professional manpower's cultivation by education and training, etc. Here are some suggestions for foreign produce importation. First, the government should conduct a survey on the current distribution channels and analyze the situation to establish a measure for long-term development plans. By providing each agricultural area with a guideline for planning appropriate production of crops, the government can help farmers be ready for importation, and prevent them from producing same crops all at the same time. Government can sign an MOU with the foreign government and promote the importation so that the development of agricultural resources can be stable and steady. Second, the government can establish a strategy for an effective distribution system by providing farmers and agriculture-related workers with the distribution information such as price, production, demand, market structure and location, feature of each crop, and etc. In order for such distribution system to become feasible, the government needs to reconstruct the current distribution system, designate a public organization for providing distribution information and set the criteria for level of produce quality, trade units, and package units. Third, the government should provide financial support and a policy to seek an efficient distribution channel for foreign produce to be delivered fresh: the government should expand distribution facilities (for selecting, packaging, storing, and processing) and transportation vehicles while modernizing old facilities. There should be another policy to improve the efficiency of unloading, and to lower the cost of distribution. Fourth, it is necessary to enact a new law covering exceptional cases for importing produce in order to maintain the price competitiveness; currently the high tariffs is keeping the imported produce from being distributed domestically. However, the new adjustment should be made carefully within the WTO regulations since it can create a problem from giving preferential tariffs. The government can also simplify the distribution channels in order to reduce the cost in the distribution process. Fifth, the government should educate distributors to raise the efficiency and to modernize the distribution system. It is necessary to develop human resources by educating people regarding the foreign agricultural environment, the produce quality, management skills, and by introducing some successful cases in advanced countries.