• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.127-150
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• 2005

Under the WTO system, the farm size expansion or the existing korean agricultural structure should be improved to cope with farm income decrease and to continue rice cultivation for food security in the future. This study is aimed at identifying optimum farm size under trade liberalization and import and export parity price system of inputs and outputs. The optimum farm size expressed the minimum point of long run average cost is determined as 15.1ha. The farm size to be equalized as urban laborer's income of 37,361 thousand won per year was revealed 30ha. Therefore the G't recommended farm size of 6ha should be changed to 30ha and the concerned policies for agricultural structure improvement also should be changed to more flexibilitiy.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.63-81
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze the changes of time series, the use by farm type and the causes of farm household debt. First, the mid and long term changes in farm household debt over the past 50 years have increased. Since 2010, the share of non-agricultural debt has exceeded the share of agricultural debt. Second, as a result of the analysis of the farm household debt use by farm type - full time&part time, farming type, land size, age, family members - there was a difference between the agricultural and the non-agricultural debt according to the type of farm household in a significant level of 1%. Finally, as a result of the cause analysis of the farm household debt, the related non-agricultural expenditure variables and the dummy variable of the manager's age, family member and land size has a common influence on the farm household debt increase.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.87-95
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• 2017

Purpose - The structural changes of Korean agriculture are complex due to heterogeneous production processes and farms' features. This study analyzed trends of dualism in Korean agriculture over the period 2000-15 based on farm-level data to clarify the specific trends of dualism in terms of farm income, farm-size, and farm operators' age. From the results of this study, we would be able to understand the features of structural changes in Korean agriculture more profoundly. Research design, data, and methodology - We incorporated farm-level data in South Korea: Agricultural census and Farm household economy survey. As measures of inequality, we used size-weighted quantiles, and normalized Gini coefficients as well as mean and conventional quantiles. The size-weighted quantiles are more robust to changes in the number of small farms, but they are more sensitive to changes in the distribution of farm-size. Thus, they would be more useful to identify trends of dualism of Korean agriculture. Results - The results show that the farmland distribution of crop farms became more skewed and dispersed. However, the herd distribution of livestock farms became more concentrated. To be specific, their mean and 1st quantile increases more rapidly than their size-weighted 2nd quantile and size-weighted 3rd quantile. Gini coefficients of livestock farms regarding their herd distribution decreased by 0.1 on average. In the case of income distribution, the results indicate that the polarization regarding farm household/agricultural/non-agricultural income became more severe. However, we also found that the distribution of transfer income became concentrated continuously. The results imply that transfer income including subsidies would decrease farm income polarization. Lastly, during the study periods, Korean farms were aging over time, and age distribution of them more concentrated. Conclusions - The structure of Korean agriculture has been changing, even though the absolute size of it decreased over time. Land (herd) distribution became more dispersed (concentrated). Inequality regarding agricultural income became more severe, and it made farm household income more polarized even though transfer income would decrease income gaps among farms. Lastly, farms continue to age regardless of farm types and this might affect the structural changes in Korean agriculture in the future.

• The Journal of Natural Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.83-121
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• 2004

This study was carried out to examine how solid the production foundation of rice in Chung-Nam Province is, and, if not, to probe alternative measures through the size of farms specializing in rice, of which direction would be a pivot of rice industry-oriented policy. The results obtained can be summarized as follows : 1. The amount of rice production in Chung-Nam Province is highest in Korea and the size of paddy field area is the second largest : This implying that the probability that rice production in Chung-Nam Province would be severely influenced by a global trend of market conditions. The number of farms specializing in rice becoming the core group of rice farming account for 7.7 percent of the total number of farm household in Korea. Average field area financial support which had been input to farm household by Government had a noticeable effect on the improvement of the policy of farm-size program. 2. Farm-size program in Chung-Nam Province established from 1980 to 2002 in creased the cultivation size of paddy field to 19,484 hectares, and this program enhanced the buying and selling of farmland and the number of farmland bargain reached 6,431 household and 16,517 hectares, respectively, in 1995-2002. Meanwhile, long-term letting and hiring of farmland appeared so active that the bargain acreage reached 6,970 hectares, and farm involved was 7,059 households, however, the farm-exchange-and-unity program did not satisfy our expectation, because the retirement farm operators reluctantly participated to sell their farms. Another reason that had delayed the bargain of farms rested on the general category of social complication attendant upon the exchange and unity operation for scattered farm. Such difficulties would work negative effects out to carry on the target of farm-size work in general. 3. The following measures were presented to propel the farm-size promotion program : a. Occupation shift project, followed by the social security program for retirement and elderly farm operators, should be promptly established and also a number of types of incentives for promoting the letting and hiring work and farm-exchange-and-unity program would also be set up. b. To establish the effective key system of rice production, all the farm operators should increase the unit area yield of rice and lower the production cost. To do so, a great deal of production teams of rice equipped with managerial techniques and capabilities need to be organized. And, also, there should be appropriate arrays of facilities including information system. This plan is desirable to be in line with a diversity of the structural implement of regional integration based on farm system building. c. To extend the size of farm and to improve farm management, we have to devise the enlargement of individual size of farm for maximized management and the utilization of farm-size grouping method. In conclusion, it can be said that the farm-size project in Chung-Nam Province which has continued since the 1980s was satisfactorily achieved. However, we still have a lot of problems to be solved to break down the barrier for attainment of the desirable farm-size operation work.. Farm-size project has fairly close relation with farm specialization in rice and, thus, the positive support for farm household including the integrated program for both retirement farmers and off-farm operators should be considered to pursue the progressive development of the farm-size program, which is key means to successful achievement of rice farming enforcement in Chung-Nam Province.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.53-61
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• 2016

Purpose - The production efficiency of agricultural crops has been the subject of numerous studies in the field of agricultural economics. This study examines the production efficiency of emerging vineyards in the 14 northern U.S. states and aims to understand raw input and managerial factors affecting the grape production with focusing on the effect of farm size. Research design, data, and methodology - Using a unique survey dataset that was collected from 176 vineyards in 2012, we employed data envelopment analysis (DEA) for estimation of production efficiency in individual vineyards. Production efficiency is regressed on various input and managerial covariates to understand factors influencing the productivity. Results - Although there exists positive correlation between the farm size and productivity of vineyards in Northern U.S. states, we find negative relationship when the farm size is instrumented by the additional farm size expansion indicator. The negative effect is more pronounced for the recently established vineyards. Conclusions - This study suggests that there needs to be adequate managerial improvements for emerging vineyards in northern states for the achievement of increased productivity.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.181-197
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• 1970

Farm households consumption pattern from 1960 to 1968 was analized as follows. First, the influence of the price on the consumption pattern was observed by year for 9 years. Second, the influence of farm households and by size of the consmption pattern was analized by year for whole household and by size of the arable land. Third, the present status and problems of farm families consumption pattern was attempted to be found out compared with the pattern of all families of Seoul. Forth, the pattern of food expenditure which has the largest proportion in the living expenditure was analized. Following results and conclusions are obtained from the above analysis.1. The average nominal increase rate of all farm households has been increased gradually for 9 years, mostly due to the rise in household goods prices paid by farmers. 2. The living expenditure varies with the price and the disposal income, The influence of the latter is greater than that of the former. 3. The Engel's Coefficient of farmers. the average of which was 54.9%, recently tends to decrease gradually. The larger is the size of arable land, the lower is the Coefficient of farm households. But the Coefficient of farm households is higher than that of city families. 4. In general the proportion of food expenditure has a great influence on the consumption pattern, The average percentage of miscellaneous expenditure is 23.9% and it is next to food expenditure. The relationship between them is going reversely. Housing expenditure has usually the constant proportion. But the difference of the proportion between farm households (4.0%) and city families (17.1%) is considerable. Clothing expenditure and fuel and light expenditure have small variations. The former tends to increase with the income, and the latter tends to decrease with it or is constant. 5. Considering the food expenditure pattern, the average percentage (78.4%)of staple food of farm household is remarkably high compared with Seoul (48.3%) and other cities (54.0%). The decrease of the percentage of staple food expenditure in farm households is not so much as cities. 6. The propertion of the staple food expenditure of Farm families don't have so much differences by the size of arable land. But the rice proportion of staple foods has the tendency to increase with the income level. Subsidery food expenditure doesn't increase by year and by size of the land, while the consumption of meat and manufactured foods tends to increase with size of the land. But even big farm households don't reach to the level of cities in consumption of them. 7. Food consumption pattern may be influenced by the factors such as the knowledge of wife about nutrition, customs, consumption habits, and so on. The difference between farm households and city families in food consumption pattern is inferred from the above factors. Presently, the increasing income of the people promote the consumption of all items of living expenditure both in cities and farm households. But the Engel's Coeffcient and the proportion of the staple food expenditure is expected to decrease in farm households more than in cities.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.57-72
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• 2018

Organic agriculture seeks sustainable agriculture. Organic agriculture is based on circulating agriculture of a family farm unit. However, as of the end of 2016, only 33 out of the total organic farming farms were implementing Crop-Livestock cycling organic farming. The reason seems to be a matter of income after all. The optimal size combination refers to the scale by which family farms can maintain their quality of life while engaging in farming activities. In other words. it is a farm scale that maintains optimal income through stable labor costs. In the meantime, there has been no previous study on the optimal economical combination of Crop-Livestock cycling farming. Choi (2016) analyzed whether the economies of scope (EOS) were realized in the combined production by using the management data of the farmers who practiced Crop-Livestock cycling organic farming for four years. As a result, it has been revealed that the EOS measurement value is 0 or more so the economies of scope are being realized. Therefore, the purpose of this empirical analysis is to identify farm incomes under this circumstance. It is assumed that the optimum production is achieved by balancing the total income curve and the total cost curve in the optimal scale production range. The results of the analysis are as follows. First, the income after the conversion to Crop-Livestock cycling farming was 44,789,280 won, the sum of the seedling-livestock sector, which was 17,873,120 won higher when the non-Crop-Livestock cycling farming was assumed. The same is true for 2014 and 2015. The reason for this is that pig droppings were composted from organic seedlings, and the cost of selling pork was 150,000 won/per pig more expensive even though the manufacturing cost of organic feeds was higher than the purchasing cost. Secondly, this study simulated the result that the economic index varies when the farm size combination is changed by the farm size of 100% standard (S100) as of 2014. S130 is the increase in size from 100% of 2014, whereas S30 is the result of 3ha crop and 66 livestock (pigs). As a result of this simulation, Crop-Livestock cycling farming income decreased more than non-Crop-Livestock cycling farming as the farm size decreased, whereas the income decreased as the farm size increased. When the size was reduced below S50, the income tended to decrease. In this situation, EOS changed in the same direction. The results showed that when the farming size was reorganized and reduced to 50% compared to 2014, the income and income difference was the highest. At the same time, economies of scope (EOS) were the highest at 0.12985. In other words, it was found that the income of farm houses in a family farm unit sector was the best in the combination of 1.5ha crop agriculture and 110 livestock (pigs).

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.135-148
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• 2002

In recent years, domestic market environment of rice production is confronted with the problems of excessive production and decrease in per capita consumption, resulting in steady decline of domestic rice price. Moreover, as new trade negotiations of WTO or FTA are being forwarded, cheap price of imported rice will also make the rice production environment being worse off. One of the possible production strategies to relieve this situation could be expanding farm size, which increases market competitiveness in terms of cost-saving. Since 1990's, one of the main agricultural policies for rice production in Korea has been expanding farm size. This study aims at 1)exploring brief history of Korean government's agricultural policy for expanding farm size, 2)examining economic effect of farming size expansion, and 3)discussing major role of government to promote appropriate programs for rice-farming and producers. Main conclusion suggests that appropriate farming size should be expanded upto at least five hectares per farm, with producers' effort to reduce farming costs and continuous investments on agricultural infrastructures including irrigation systems, etc. Continuous government's investment on operation and maintenance on water facility is also one of the important factors in expanding farm size.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.67-80
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• 1994

Farm land is considered the most important production factor in farm production. Land is not only one of the most scarce resource but also the size of land holding is the key factor in determining the size of farm income in Korea. To increase farm productivity by accepting bio-chemical and mechnical technology, the qualitative improvement of farm land through land consolidation and on-farm development have been carried out by the Korean government. Land consolidation with water resource development makes possible the high-tech-capital intensive farming, internal expansion of farm land and hightening the rate of land intensity in connection with UR problems. This paper contained the present status of farm land base development, allocation of investment by types of farm land development and the econome-trical analysis on the effects of the investment on rice productivity during the past 27 years since 1965. The rate of irrigated paddy area had been increased from 42% in 1965 to 74% in 1991. Land consolidated area out of the total paddy area had been achieved 44.9% and the improved rate of poor drained paddy area was shown 43.5% in 1991. To carry out the above farm land base development projects, the government had procured financial budgets consisting of the G't subsidy, long term loan, foreign loan, the provincial G't subsidy, WFP counter fund and farmer's burden.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1993.10a
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• pp.565-583
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• 1993

In order to reduce the production cost and improve the quality of dairy feed, several dairy feed mill model suitable for Korean farm size are developed. Also, capital requirement and operating costs of the model mill are analyzed. And these analyzed data are compared with the commercial feed production cost, in order to test whether the model mills are suitable or not in Korean dairy farm. Also optimum model is recommended depending on size of dairy farm. As a result, developed model mill(TMR) is very useful in Korea dairy farm not only reduce production cost up to 78% but also improve the qualities.