• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.275-284
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• 2017

The food situation in North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK) has been in difficulty situation because of a shortage of energy, and of raw materials such as fertilizer and agricultural chemicals. The international agricultural aid programs can alleviate some difficulties in the agricultural areas, but the policies and measures in North Korea can not help difficulties in the agriculture due to the institutional obstacles enforced by DPRK. The arable area of DPRK is approximately $20,000km^2$, of which $14,000km^2$ is well for cereal cultivation. Fertilizer supplies in recent years between 700,000 and 750,000 tons annually were less than 50% of the normal requirement. Also, North Korea strongly needed to inject phosphorus fertilizer and lime to increase the fertility. Soil degradation in DPRK was characterized by physical and chemical changes caused by rapid loss of clay particles and organic matter. Intensive ploughing and tilling to grow crops may lead to massive soil degradation and declining yields. Although farmers in the DPRK have faced numerous challenges, not least of which are soil erosion, scarce inputs and extreme weather like drought, flooding and cold spells. Therefore farmers should be encouraged to adopt more environmentally sound cropping practices, to access quality seeds and planting materials and to reduce losses after the harvest.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.113-125
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• 2000

This study was carried out to introduce current status and development strategy for an environmental restoration of stream side in Japan, and to consider a methodology which could be effectively applied for the environmental restoration of stream side in Korea. The strategy prospects of environmental restoration in Japan were summarized as follows : 1. When we establish the long term erosion control planning, we should make detail planning after considering of a certain block of watershed units. Because most of the disaster is caused by soil movement which was occurred by water contents. 2. Nowadays, the general torrent erosion control planning system in Japan focused on reducing the sediment such as by placement of erosion control facility and by restoration of afforestation, after calculation of several factors including expected amount of sediment, and the different amount of planned sediment and allowable sediment. 3. In the past, the goal of forest conservation and erosion control planing was to fix the amount of soil movement by construction of permanent facilities. While, the goal of forest conservation and erosion control planning in the future needs to change the techniques to a small and middle scale's soil movement which could prevent soil movement from large scale of soil disasters, but allow soil movement effectively. Also, it is considered to change erosion control dams from non passing type to passing type. 4. Restoration of stream-side ecology, erosion control for the conservation of ecology should be planned and conducted cautiously based on concepts of ecology conservation and development of environmentally sound techniques.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.478-485
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• 2019

As environmentally sound agriculture emphasize gradually as well as the importance of environment, many studies on weed and soil nematode control of new concept which does not affect adversely environment are in progress. For this purpose, plant seeds which are representative weed species in field were selected and treated with microwave having generating capacity of $17.73kw/m^3$, and investigated germination rates of weed seeds and the number of soil nematode according to soil moisture contents, soil depth and irradiation times. The microwave effect on the germination rates was extremely high in soil moisture content of 40% and irradiation time over 40 seconds for irradiation time, while soil depth did not affect germination rate. In view of the results so far achieved, it seems that universal dispersed microwave system is effective for the control of weed seeds.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.57-63
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• 2003

Clubroot disease of curcifer crops caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae had been first reported in 1928 in Korea, and maintained mild occurrence until 1980s. Since 1990s the disease has become severe in alpine areas of Kyonggi and Kangwon, gradually spread to plain fields throughout the country, and remains as the great-est limiting factor for its production. Researches on the disease has begun in late 1990s after experiencing severe epidemics. Survey of occurrence and etiological studies have been carried out, particularly, on the pathogen physiology, race identification, quantification of soil pathogen population, and host spectrum of the pathogen. Ecology of gall formation and its decay, yield loss assessment associated with time of infection, and relationships between crop rotation and the disease incidence was also studied during late 1990s. In studies of its control, more than 200 crucifer cultivars were evaluated for their resistance to the disease. Lime applica-tion to field soil was also attempted to reduce the disease incidence. Resistant radish and welsh onion were recommended as rotation crops with crucifers after 3-year field experiments. However, so for, most studies on clubroot disease in Korea have been focused on chemical control. Two fungicides, fluazinam and flusulfamide, were selected and extensively studied on their application technologies and combination effects with lime application or other soil treatment. To develop environmentally-friendly control methods, solar-disinfection of soil, phosphoric acid as a nontoxic compound, and root-parasiting endophytes as biocontrol agents were examined for their effects on the disease in fields. In the future, more researches are needed to be done on development of resistant varieties effective to several races of the pathogen, establishment of economically-sound crop rotation system, and improvement of soil-disinfection technique applicable to Korean field condi-tion, and development of methodology of pretreatment of fungicides onto seeds and seedbeds.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.435-449
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• 2010

Soils in the sloping uplands in Korea are subject to intensive land use with high input of agrochemicals and are vulnerable to soil erosion. Development of the environmentally sound land management strategy is essential for a sustainable production system in the sloping upland. This report addresses the status of upland agriculture and the best management practices for the uplands toward the sustainable agriculture. More than 60% of Korean lands are forest and only 21% are cultivating paddy and upland. Uplands are about 7% of the total lands and about 62% of the uplands are in the slopes higher than 7%. Due to the site-specificity of the upland, many managerial and environmental problems are occurring, such as severe erosion, shallow surface soils with rocky fragments, and loadings of non-point source (NPS) contaminants into the watershed. Based on the field trials, most of the sloping uplands were classified as Suitability Class III-V and the major limiting factor was slope and rock fragments. Due to this, soils were over-applied with N fertilizer, even though N rate was the recommendation. This resulted in decreases in yield, degradation of soil quality and increases in N loading to the leachate. Various case studies drew management practices toward sustainable production systems. The suggested BMP on the managerial, vegetative, and structural options were to practice buffer strips along the edges of fields and streams, winter cover crop, contour and mulching farming, detention weir, diversion drains, grassed waterway, and slope arrangement. With these options, conservation effects such as reductions in raindrop impact, flow velocity, runoff and sediment loss, and rill and gully erosion were observed. The proper management practice is a key element of the conservation of the soil and water in the sloping upland.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.127-145
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• 1998

Unlike water or air quality standards that have been established by legislation using potential human health impact as the primary criterion, soil quality depends on the soils primary function and its relevant environmental factors, which is much more site- and soil specific. A properly characterized soil quality assessment system should serve as an indicator of the soil capacity to produce safe and nutritious food, to enhance human and animal health, and to overcome degrative processes. For our proposed example, a high quality soil with regard to maintaining an adequate soil productivity as a food production resources must accommodate soil and water properties, food chain, sustainability and utilization, environment, and profitability, that (i) facilitate water transfer and absorption, (ii) sustain plant growth, (iii) resist physical degradation of soil, (iv) produce a safe food resources, (v) cost-effective agricultural management. Possible soil quality indicators are identified at several levels within the framework for each of these functions. Each indicator is assigned a priority or weight that reflects its relative importance using a multi-objective approach based on principles of systems to be considered. To do this, individual scoring system is differentiated by the several levels from low to very high category or point scoring ranging from 0 to 10, And then weights are multiplied and products are summed to provide an overall soil quality rating based on several physical and chemical indicators. Tlne framework and procedure in developing the soil quality assessment are determined by using information collected from an alternative and conventional farm practices in the regions. The use of an expanded framework for assessing effects of other processes, management practices, or policy issues on soil quality is also considered. To develop one possible form for a soil quality index, we should permit coupling the soil characteristics with assessment system based on soil properties and incoming and resident chemicals. The purpose of this paper is to discuss approaches to defining and assessing soil quality and to suggest the factors to be considered.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.312-318
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• 1999

These experiments were conducted to determine the effects of soils treated with different soil management, methods, fertilizers and crops on soil microflora and its number for constructing the environmentally sound agriculture modeling of the upland soils. These experiments show that physico-chemical soil characteristics was different in upland soils treated with different soil managements and fertilizers applied. Also soil microflora and its number were effected from crops cultivated with different soil managements in these experiments. The number of Erwinia sp. in chinese cabbage cultivated field on Daekwanryung especially was apparently increased in soil cultivated with potato relative to corn. It was appeared that the number of Fusarium sp. in soil was more effected from kind of fertilizer applied than crops cultivated.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.462-471
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• 2017

A more efficient use of nutrients from organic sources can benefit both farmers and water quality in agriculture. In this paper we reviewed information related to the regulations and guidelines of a swine liquid fertilizer to propose an establishment scheme for the official standards of swine manure slurry as a liquid fertilizer for organic farming. According to the law of establishment and designation of official standard of fertilizers, the liquid fertilizer made with pig liquid manure belongs to the byproduct fertilizer as of one of organic fertilizer. However, the official standards for byproduct fertilizers including the liquid fertilizer set by the Rural Development Administration (RDA), especially for a liquid swine manure fertilizer, should be revised to meet the goals of laws pursuing the environmentally sound agriculture, especially for organic farming because the terms and relevant standards need additional specific standards alike the standards such as impurities and parameter for declaration in EU. Therefore, it is suggested that official standards for byproduct fertilizers should be revised with respect to nutrient, salt content as of SAR and Na content instead of NaCl. Also we need to develop the maximum limit of heavy metals in soil to which the liquid fertilizer can be applied, as well as application rate depending on EC of the liquid fertilizer.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.8-13
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• 2003

Soil, ground water, and sea bed are exposed to a continuous accumulation of polluted materials, causing serious environmental damage. It has been reported that such pollution causes a massive mortality of fish stock in rivers due to the resuspension of toxic chemicals, occurring during strong wind conditions. Therefore, it becomes apparent that there is an immediate demand for the restoration treatment of polluted river bed (or sea bed) sediment layers. Pollution levels of major rivers and ports, such as Paldang, Kyungan rivers, and Masan port, are becoming of great public concern, and are posing a serious environmental threat. In particular, the pollution of the Shi-hwa river has become a nation wide issue for the last few years. In spite of such public concern, the pollution levels of such rivers or ports are worsening everyday. In this study, an environmentally sound engineering package is introduced that helps to restore the polluted river bed or sea bed sediments. This engineering package consists of a suction facility, followed by a series of mechanical, chemical, and biological treatment units. The suction facility is designed to minimize secondary pollution that occurs from the resuspension of toxic materials during suction. The sea bed cleaning engineering package is designed to be installed on the top of a floating barge. Such a combination of environmental plant and shipbuilding technology provides a cost-effective solution, minimizing the transportation between suction and treatment facilities.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2001

With increasing global concern that intensively synthetic-chemical based farming systems accelerated the decline in environmental quality, the sustainability of modem agriculture became the subject of great concern. It is well known that the movement of Community Supported Agriculture(CSA) has been contributed significantly to the development of organic agriculture in USA and Japan. It was supposed that CSA could be one of the best way to promote the movement of organic agriculture since there is little reliability on the organically grown food by consumer. In this paper it was focussed to study the movement of CSA in USA and Europe in order to provide an idea for establishment and movement of CSA in Korea to support the organic agriculture. In a CSA system, the farmer grows food for a group of shareholders who pledge to buy a portion of the farm's crop that season. This arrangement gives growers up-front cash to finance their operation and higher prices for produce, since the middleman has been eliminated. For most shareholder for CSA saving money is a secondary consideration, but fresh safe products and environmentally sound farming system. People become shareholder of CSA since they expect an organic farming which can ; \circled1protect the environment, minimize pollution, promote health, \circled2replenish and maintain long-term soil fertility by providing optimal conditions for soil biological activity, \circled3maintain diversity within the farming system and its surroundings and protect plant and wildlife habit, \circled4recycle materials and resources to the greatest extent possible within the farm and its surrounding community, \circled5maintain the integrity of organic food and processed products through each step of the process from planting to consumption, \circled6develop and adopt new technologies with consideration for their long range social and ecological impact. In all CSAs, the farmer develops a crop plan and a budget, which details costs for a growing season, including fair wages for the farmers. Experienced Information on increasing shareholder retention, the future of CSA, and getting started such as ideas for ongoing marketing, printed materials that set realistic expectations, working members, production, pick-up and delivery, setting prices, and receiving feedback were also briefly introduced.