• 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.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.3
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• pp.49-82
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• 1965

For the stable and high yields of low-land rice in Korea, the characteristics of rice plant for the vegetative and physiological responses, plant type formation, and yield components have been studied in order to obtain the fundamental data for the improvement of cultural practices, especially for the ideal fertilizer application. Furthermore the environmental conditions in Korea including temperatures, light, precipitation, and soil conditions have been compared in the broad sense with those in Japan, and the application of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, silicate and other micro-nutrients were described in relation to the characteristics of environmental conditions for the improvement of fertilizer application. 1. The average yield of polished-rice per 10 are in Korea is about 204 kg and this values are much less than those in Japan and Taiwan where they produce 77% to 13% more than in Korea. The rate of yield increase a year in Korea is 4.2 kg, but in Japan and Taiwan the rates of yield increase a year are 81 % and 62%, respectively. It was also found that the coefficient of variation of yield is 7.7% in Korea, 6.7% in Japan and 2.5% in Taiwan. This means that the stability of producing rice in Korea is very low when compared with those in Japan and Taiwan. 2. It was learned from the results obtained from the 'annual yield estimation experiment' that there are big differences in the respect of plant type formations between rice crops grown in Japan and Korea. The important differences found were as follows: (1) The numbers of spikelets per 3.3 square meters are 891 in Korea and 1, 007 in Japan(13% more than in Korea). (2) The numbers of tillers per 3.3 square meters at the stage of maximum tillering are 1, 150 in Korea, but in Japan they showed 19% more than in Korea. (3) The ratio of effective tillers to total tillers is 77.5% in Korea and 74.7% in Japan, which seems to be higher in Korea than in Japan. But the ratio in Korea is very low when considered the numbers of total tillers in both countries. (4) The ratio of grain to straw is 85.4% in Korea and 96.3% in Japan. 3. The average temperatures during the growing season at the area of Suwon, Kwangjoo and Taegu are almost same as those in the district of Jookokoo(Fookoo yama) in Japan, i.e., the temperatures during the rice-growing season in Korea are similar to those in the southern-warm regions of Japan. 4. Considering the minimum temperatures at the stage of limiting transplanting, 13$^{\circ}C$, the time of transplanting might be 30 to 40 days earlier than presently practicing transplanting time, which comes around June 10. 5. The temperatures during the vegetative growth in Korea were higher than those temperatures that needed in the protein synthesis which ate the main metabolism during this stage. However, the temperatures at the time of reproductive growth was lower than the temperatures that needed in the sugar assimilation which is main metabolism in this stage. In this point of view, it might be considered that the proper time of growing rice plant in Korea would be rather earlier. 6. The temperatures and the day light conditions at the time of first tillering stage of rice plant, when planted as presenting transplanting practices, are very satisfactory, but the poor day light length, high temperatures and too wet conditions in the time of last-tillering stage(mid or last July) might cause the occurrence of disease such as blast. 7. The heading stage of rice plants at each region through nations when planted as presently practicing method comes when the day light length is short. 8. It was shown that the accumulated average air-temperature at the time of maturing stage was not enough and the heading time was too late, when considered the annual deviations of mean temperatures and low minimum temperatures. 9. The nitrogen content of each plant part at the each growing stage was very high at the stage of vegetative growth when compared with the nitrogen content at the stage of reproductive growth after heading. In this respect it was believed to be important to prevent the nutrient shortages at the reproductive stages, especially after the heading. 10. The area of unsatisfactory irrigation paddy fields and natural rain-fed paddy fields are getting reduced in Korea. The correlation between the rate of reducing unsatisfactory irrigation and natural rain-fed paddy fields and the rate of yield increase were computed. The correlation coefficients(r) between the area of unsatisfactory irrigation paddy fields and yield increase were +0.525, and between the natural rain-fed paddy fields and yield increase, +0.832 and between the unsatisfactory irrigation plus natural rain-fed paddy fields and yield increase, +0.84. And there were. highly significant positive correlations between natural rain-fed paddy fields and yield increases indicating that the less the area of natural rain-fed paddy fields, the greater the yields per unit area. 11. The results obtained from the fertilizer experiments (yield performance trials) conducted in both Korea and Japan showed that the yield of non-fertilized plots per 10 are was 231 kg in Korea and 360 kg in Japan. On the basis of this it might be concluded that the fertility of soil in Korea is lower than that in Japan. Furthermore it was. also found that the yields of non-nitrogen applied plots per 10 are were 236 kg in Korea and 383 kg in Japan. This also indicates that the yields of rice in Korea are largely depending on the nitrogen content in the soil. 12. The followings were obtained when the chemical natures of soils in both Korea and Japan were compared. (1) The content of organic matter, total nitrogen, exchangeable calcium, and magnesium in Korea were no more than the half those in Japan. (2) The content of N/2 chloride and soluble silicate in low-land soil were on the average lower in Korea. (3) The exchange capacity of bases in Korea was no more than half that in Japan. 13. It was also observed by comparing the soil nature of the soil with high yielding capacity with the soil with low yielding capacity that the exchange capacity of bases, exchangeable calcium and magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, manganese, silicate and iron were low in the soil with low yielding capacity. 14. The depth of furrow slice was always deeper in the soil with high yielding capacity, and the depth of furrow slice in Korea was also shallower than that in Japan. 15. Summarizing the various conditions mentioned previously and considering the effects of silicate and trace elements such as manganese and iron besides three elements on the physiological and plant type formation of rice crops, more realistic and more ideal fertilizing practices were proposed. proposed.