• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.155-166
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• 2000

When the marcher visited Korea in fall 1994, he was shocked to see high rise apartment buildings around the capitol region including Seoul and Suwon, resulting from rising demand of housing because of urban migration followed by second and third industrial development. After 6 years in March 2000, the researcher witnessed more apartment buildings and vinyl house complexes, one of the evidences of continued economic progress in Korea. Korea had to receive the rescue finance from International Monetary Fund (IMF) because of financial crisis in 1997. However, the sign of recovery was seen in a year, and the growth rate of Gross Domestic Products (GDP) in 1999 recorded as high as 10.7 percent. During this period, the Korean government has been working on restructuring of banks, enterprises, labour and public sectors. The major directions of government were; localization, reducing administrative manpower, limiting agricultural budgets, privatization of public enterprises, integration of agricultural organization, and easing of various regulations. Thus, the power of central government shifted to local government resulting in a power increase for city mayors and county chiefs. Agricultural extension services was one of targets of government restructuring, transferred to local governments from central government. At the same time, the number of extension offices was reduced by 64 percent, extension personnel reduced by 24 percent, and extension budgets reduced. During the process of restructuring, the basic direction of extension services was set by central Rural Development Administration Personnel management, technology development and supports were transferred to provincial Rural Development Administrations, and operational responsibilities transferred to city/county governments. Agricultural extension services at the local levels changed the name to Agricultural Technology Extension Center, established under jurisdiction of city mayor or county chief. The function of technology development works were added, at the same time reducing the number of educators for agriculture and rural life. As a result of observations of rural areas and agricultural extension services at various levels, functional responsibilities of extension were not well recognized throughout the central, provincial, and local levels. Central agricultural extension services should be more concerned about effective rural development by monitoring provincial and local level extension activities more throughly. At county level extension services, it may be desirable to add a research function to reflect local agricultural technological needs. Sometimes, adding administrative tasks for extension educators may be helpful far farmers. However, tasks such as inspection and investigation should be avoided, since it may hinder the effectiveness of extension educational activities. It appeared that major contents of the agricultural extension service in Korea were focused on saving agricultural materials, developing new agricultural technology, enhancing agricultural export, increasing production and establishing market oriented farming. However these kinds of efforts may lead to non-sustainable agriculture. It would be better to put more emphasis on sustainable agriculture in the future. Agricultural extension methods in Korea may be better classified into two approaches or functions; consultation function for advanced farmers and technology transfer or educational function for small farmers. Advanced farmers were more interested in technology and management information, while small farmers were more concerned about information for farm management directions and timely diffusion of agricultural technology information. Agricultural extension service should put more emphasis on small farmer groups and active participation of farmers in these groups. Providing information and moderate advice in selecting alternatives should be the major activities for consultation for advanced farmers, while problem solving processes may be the major educational function for small farmers. Systems such as internet and e-mail should be utilized for functions of information exchange. These activities may not be an easy task for decreased numbers of extension educators along with increased administrative tasks. It may be difficult to practice a one-to-one approach However group guidance may improve the task to a certain degree.

• 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.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2018

It is ten years since the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certification system was implemented in Korea, and the government aims to acquire GAP certification up to 25% of the total agricultural areas by 2022. As of the end of 2017, 6.3% of the total cultivated area and 8.1% of the total farm households were certified, which is slower than expected. The purpose of this study was to investigate the causes of the GAP accreditation through the surveys and on site inspections of the GAP certified farmers and to propose the development plans according to the problems analysis of the current system in order to expand the GAP certification. Certified farmers recognized the need for agricultural safety and hygiene, but there were a lot of nonconformities regarding practical practices. This is due to the ambiguity of the certification standards and the wrong ways in the training method for the producers. GAP certification is slow to expand to farmers and low consumer awareness is considered a structural problem of GAP certification system, and improvement measures are needed accordingly. It is necessary to convert the state-led GAP certification system into a state-led private certification system. It is necessary for the government to focus on policy, research and follow-up management. In addition, it is necessary to establish a separate organization in the form of a contribution organization for the certification, education, and public relations. In addition, long-term plan must be established and systematically carried out. It is necessary to integrate too many certification agencies compared to the farming scale of Korea, and it is necessary to realize the application fee for realizing the financial independence of the certification body and correct certification work. In addition, inspector qualification standards should be strengthened and training system should be improved to nurture high quality inspectors. Simplified certification standards based on statutes need to be subdivided into practical action plans. In order to improve the GAP certification system, it is necessary to have a discussion through a committee composed of specialists from industry and academia, and it will be possible to contribute to the safety of the food of the people through the production of safe by drawing concrete development plans.

• 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 Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.1093-1124
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• 2014

Studies on the role of agricultural science colleges are mostly divided into agricultural production, which is the primary function of agriculture, and other functions, which have recently begun to be emphasized as a result of social needs. With the green revolution and the aging of the farming population, there is a strong view that the role of agricultural science colleges should remain as it is. However, agriculture is expanding in terms of concept and content by converging with other industries not traditionally associated with agricultural production. Thus, the fields that now need to form part of agricultural science knowledge are becoming more detailed and expansive. The government's perception remains at the level of merely fostering farmers. This was evident in a survey on the employment rate, a factor used to evaluate colleges, in which the role of agricultural science colleges was limited to fostering farmers. Agro- industry fields, other than agriculturalists, include general industries in which the academic fields of agricultural science are combined with other academic fields. Thus, even when someone is employed in an industry that requires background knowledge of agricultural science, there is often a perception that he or she is employed in a field that is irrelevant to the major. This study examines the role of agricultural science colleges in agriculture and farm villages by focusing on the employment of graduates of these colleges within agro-industry. We categorize academic research on agricultural science into 16 fields, based on the medium level of the National Standard Science and Technology Classification Codes. Then, we categorize the employment fields into 168 fields, based on the small classification level of the inter-industry relations classification. Thus, we investigate 220 departments of 37 colleges, nationwide. Our findings show that the average employment rate of graduates of agricultural science colleges is 69.0%. Furthermore, 33.0% of all employees work in agro-industry fields that require background knowledge in agricultural science, which is one out of three job seekers. Then, 3.6% of employees work in business startups in agro-industry. The aforementioned government survey showed that only 0.1% of all college graduates in Korea were employed as agriculturalists in 2013. However, our results showed that 13.3% of graduates were working as agriculturalists, which is significantly different to the results of the government survey. These results confirm that agricultural science colleges contribute greatly to the employment of graduates, including farmers, agro-industry, and business startups in agro-industry fields.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2012

Increasing concerns over green farming technology, plant growth promoting rhizobacterium (PGRP) having growth promoting as well as plant disease suppressing properties was recently preferred to use for biological control of plant pathogens infecting plant. We measured the influence of the selected microbial consortium agents-a mixture of PGPR strains-, commercial bio-fungicide, and chemical pesticides on soil microbial community in red pepper field. The activities of soil enzyme such as dehydrogenase, urease, phosphatase, ${\beta}$-glucosidase, and cellulase were analyzed to investigate that of soil microbial community. We also measured plant length, main stem, stem diameter, number of branches and yields of red-pepper in order to observe the red pepper growth promotion. The results of measuring enzyme activities were dehydrogenase 3.5584 ${\mu}g$ TPF $g^{-1}h^{-1}$, urease 15.8689 ${\mu}g$ $NH_4{^-}N$ $g^{-1}h^{-1}$, phosphatase 0.5692 ${\mu}g$ PNP $g^{-1}h^{-1}$, ${\beta}$-glucosidase 2.4785 ${\mu}g$ PNP $g^{-1}h^{-1}$, and cellulase 86.1597 ${\mu}g$ glucose $g^{-1}h^{-1}$ in the soil treated with the microbial consortium agents, so it came out to be very active in the soil. Observing the growth of red-peppers, the main-stem length and the stem diameter were 6.1% and 8.1% higher in the soil treated with the selected microbial consortium agent than the chemical pesticides. After harvesting, yields were 7.3% higher in the soil treated with selected microbial consortium agents than the chemical pesticides. These results showed that microbial consortium agents contribute to increasing soil microbial diversity, growth promoting, and yield of red pepper.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.123-130
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• 2011

This study was carried out to examine the effect of cattle manure and chemical fertilizer application on productivity and nutritive value of silage corn in the reclaimed paddy field of Sukmoon at Dangjin Province in Korea. The cultivars of silage corn used in this experiment were Kwangpyungok and Pioneer (P32B33). The fertilizer was applied according to recommended dose of application. The reclaimed paddy field of Sukmoon was created for farming in 1985 and approximately 5 to 10 years ago rice was cultivated in full-scale. Recently, reclaimed paddy field of Sukmoon has a limitation to cultivate the crops, due to increased salinity caused by drought and poor drainage system. The total area of reclaimed paddy field of Sukmoon was 305 ha, and silage corn was sown on 149 ha of the reclaimed paddy field in nine regions, such as Songsan 28 A and B, Songsan 27 A and B, Songsan 42 A, B and C, and Songsan 43 A and B. The productivity and nutritive value of corn were evaluated collected from each of nine experimental regions. Dry matter (DM) yields of P32B33 in Songsan 28 A and B, and Songsan 27 A were 13 to 15 ton/ha and it was increased 3 to 5 ton/ha as compared to those of Songsan 27 B. DM yields of Kwangpyungok in Songsan 42 A, and Songsan 43 A and B were 23 to 27 ton/ha and it was increased 15 to 16 ton/ha as compared to Songsan 42 A and B. The nutritive value of corn was not significantly different between Kwangpyungok and P32B33, but the yield of Kwangpyungok corn silage was higher compared to P32B33. Therefore, this study suggests that good drainage system is important to maintain normal growth and productivity of corn in the reclaimed paddy field.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2009

This study was conducted to analyze the effects of sow breeding environment on the reproduction in the first litter in a large-sized hog farm, located in Dangjin-gun, Chungnam from July 1st, 2007 to June 30th, 2008 and provide basic information to improve the sow productivity in a family farming sows. The results obtained were as follows; 1. The gestation periods were proved to be similar without significant differences between indoor and outdoor breeding grounds, The average of farrowing rate was 91.91%, and 92.54% farrowing rate of out-door ground breeding sows was slightly greater than 91.57% of group-housed sows, but there was no significance between two groups. 2. The average of total litter size and the number of born alive per litter were 9.81 and 9.02, respectively. The number of total number was 0.98 and the number of born alive per litter was 1.18 in the outdoor-ground breeding sows, which was significantly greater than group-housed sows(p<0.001). 3. The number(rate) of piglets stillborn was 0.22(2.10%) from the outdoor-ground breeding sows was significantly greater, compared with 0.33(3.53%) from group-housed sows(p<0.01). The number of piglets culled was 0.23(2.27%) and 0.26(2.77%), in the out-door ground breeding sows and in group-housed sows, respectively and it was not significantly similar between two groups. And, the number of mummies was 0.21(2.1%) and 0.28(2.29%), in the out-door ground breeding sows and in group-housed sows, respectively, which showed no significance. 4. The weaning number in the playground breeding sows was 9.48 and it was significantly greater than that in the group-housed sows(p<0.001). The average of weaned age was observed to be 22.91 days. The weaned age in the out-door ground breeding sows was 22.39 days, and it was significantly smaller than that in group-housed sows(p<0.001). The breeding rate for the weaning of pigs was satisfactory as 96.82%, but there was no significant difference between two groups.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.42-50
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• 2009

Shrimp farming which is entirely conducted in outdoor ponds in the west coast of Korea has been suffered from mass mortality due to viral epizootics. Intensive indoor shrimp culture under limited water exchange can solve these problems of outdoor ponds including viral transmission from environment, pollution due to discharge of rearing water, low productivity and limited culture period. In this study, juvenile L. vannamei (B.W. 0.08-0.09 g) was stocked with $3,000-5,455/m^3$ in density in four raceway tanks (two $12.9\;m^2$, two $18\;m^2$ tanks) and cultured for 42 days with 2.7-3.4% of daily water exchange. Results from four tanks showed FCR of 0.79-1.29, survival of 38.2-48.0%, and yields of $2.49-4.22\;kg/m^3$ which is consistent with 12-20 and 8-14 times higher than those of commercial shrimp hatchery and outdoor pond in Korea, respectively. Concentrations of total ammonia nitrogen in all four tanks were 1.11-1.42 ppm in mean level and did not exceed 6.0 ppm (0.096 ppm of $NH_3$) which is still acceptable levels for shrimp growth. During the culture trial, concentration of $NO_2$-N rapidly increased from stocking, resulting in mean concentration of 18.45-22.07 ppm. It also exceeded 10 ppm over four weeks and maintained at 35-45 ppm for four days in all tanks, accounting for low survival of shrimp due to long-term exposure to high concentration of $NO_2$-N. Nevertheless, the results with survival rate over 38% from raceways which experienced the extreme $NO_2$-N levels suggests that under "biofloc system" white shrimp can acclimate to high $NO_2$-N concentration to some degree.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.1309-1314
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• 2007

Investigation on health conditions of Thai koi (Anabas testudineus) were carried out through clinical and histopathological observations from different farms of Mymensingh district for seven months during August 2006 to February 2007. Fish sampling and water quality parameters (temperature, dissolved oxygen and pH) were monitored on a monthly basis. Clinical examination of fishes was also carried out for any kind of abnormalities at monthly intervals. Samples of skin, muscle, gill, liver and kidney were observed by histological technique. Among the water quality parameters the values of water temperature, dissolved oxygen were found to be at unfavorable level for fish during the colder months in the farms. Clinically it was observed that fishes were more affected from December to January and almost normal in appearance during August to September and February. Different clinical symptoms like scale loss, dermal lesion, ulcer and loss of caudal fin were noticed in December and January. In histopathological study, structures of fish organs were normal from August to September. In the months of October and November, minor pathologies were found to be started. Marked pathological changes like necrosis, pyknosis, inflammation, hemorrhage, hypertrophy, hyperplasia, missing of primary and secondary gill lamellae were observed in the months of December and January. Whereas, in the month of February the pathological condition of fish gradually reduced. Again when considered individual fish farm, fishes of Reliance Aqua Farm were more affected than Sotota Matshya Hatchery. The study showed that severity of clinical and pathological changes were increased in December and January. During the period EUS and protozoan diseases were noticed in A. testudineus of the investigated farms.