• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.251-265
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• 2004

The agricultural sector's economic structure in Korea is regarded to encounter major barriers on the way toward revitalizing its economic prosperity. Among many, the energy-related problem is one of prime nuclei embedded in the country's agricultural sector. The ought-to-come structural changes in the country's agricultural energy system hinge upon the central government's policy direction as well as efforts of local governments and local farming community members. The indirect aids via 'cross subsidy' of electricity tariff rate and 'tax-exempt price' of oil fuels are two notable causes of the unsustainable energy consumption pattern in the country's agricultural sector. As measures, demand-side management(DSM) and energy-efficiency promotions are regarded to be the most attractive methods for energy conservation and economic productivity as well. Development of renewable energy sources are also receiving a great deal of attention for the long-term alternatives to the country's existing oil-based agricultural production mode. This study examines the contributive potential of DSM approaches and renewables-based technologies. With the critical evaluation on the concurrent adversities of the country's agricultural energy system, various sources of renewable energy-solar power, wind power, biomass, etc.-are examined for the purpose of technological and economical viability. As sufficient potentials of renewable energy sources are being estimated, both the system production cost and the installation cost for the county's rural areas are expected to lower in the long term. DSM options are also evaluated to be fruitful even in the short term. Both the public and civil arenas must galvanise each side's effort in order to promote these policy options and community potentials.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.3-23
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• 2008

We investigated the effects of policy reform, industrial transformation, and initial conditions on the agricultural productivity changes in 28 transition countries. Our findings are: (i) Asian and CEE transition countries performed better than CIS countries, while the performance improvement of CEE countries seems to be more prominent compared to that of Asian and CIS countries; (ii) The technical progress proved to be the main source of productivity growth, particularly in CEE countries; (iii) Reform policy and industrial transformation seems to have positive effects on the performance of agricultural sector and its changes; (iv) The initial conditions also matter.

• Bulletin of the Korea Photovoltaic Society
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.8-20
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• 2020

Nepal has huge potential of hydro and other renewable energy resources including solar energy. However, only 70% of the total population have access to electricity despite the long history of hydropower development in the country. Still more than 37% population in rural areas and around 73% population in Karnali Province, one of the least developed provinces, are living without access to electricity despite taking several initiatives and implementing various policies by government supporting electrification in off-grid rural areas. Government together with donors and private sector has extensively been promoting the off-grid solar photovoltaic (PV) echnology in un-electrified areas to increase electricity access. So far, more than 900,000 households in rural areas of Nepal are getting electricity from stand-alone solar PV systems. However, there are many challenges including financial, technical, institutional, and governance barriers in Nepal. This study based on extensive review of literatures and author's own long working experiences in renewable energy sector in Nepal, shares the best practices and lessons of off-grid solar PV for increasing access to electricity in rural areas of Nepal. This study suggests that flexible financial instruments, financial innovations, bundling of PV systems for concentrating energy loads, adopting standards process, local capacity building, and combination of technology, financing and institutional aspects are a key for enhancing effectiveness of solar PV technology in rural areas of Nepal.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.91-101
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify health promotion services in rural areas and factors influencing this service. Method: From March to April, 2007, a structured questionnaire on services in 2006 was used to collect data from community health practitioners in all of the Primary Health Care Posts (PHCP) in North Chungchong Province. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS 12.0 Win program. Results: The most frequently offered programs were health gymnastics, walking exercise, bathing and vaccination service, and hypertension management. The main obstacles to these health services were lack of adequate space, insufficient budget, and overwork. The most frequently offered health education programs were education on hypertension, exercise, diabetes, volunteer work, and smoking cessation. The main obstacles to health education were lack of adequate space, insufficient education materials and equipment, and lack of cooperation from the citizens. Improvement and reinforcement of health promotion programs should include support of specialist, development of appropriate methods of service delivery, and education materials, and increase ease in using community resources. Conclusions: The research results show that a new model of health promotion must be developed for efficient health promotion programs in rural PHCP.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.87-99
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between self-rated health and Activity of Daily Living (ADL) and self-care behavior of rural elderly in Korea, focused on the difference among three distinctive living arrangements; living alone, living only with his/her spouse, and living with their married children. For this purpose, data were gathered from a nationwide survey, a total of 586 elderly aged 65 or older and living in rural area, using the structured questionnaire. Also, self-care behavior were categorized into 4 groups; life-style practice, medical self-care, adaption to functional limitation, and emotional management. The major findings are as follows; 1) Rural elderly perceived their health little and more 'bad' but their ADL capacity were 'not difficult', especially among elderly living with spouse. 2) The level of 20 items in self-care behavior ($1{\sim}5$score) was ranged from 2.51 to 3.81 score. The behavior level of regular exercise, setting up additional phone, taking a nutrient, and testing BP or pulse regularly were low but that of taking a medicine according to prescription, close contact with other people, and regular eating were proportionally high. 3) The majority of self-care behavior were correlated with subjective health positively but medical self-care behavior were correlated with subjective health or ADL negatively. Based on these results, policy implications are discussed.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.413-420
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• 2015

This study analyzes the current status of Korea's legal system was a disaster in the rural region and to identify problems. There are many problems in rural region despite the specificity and uniqueness of the area significantly as compared to the city did not receive such consideration as to distinguish the area as part of the institutional election strategy. Through this study, we analyze the problem more effectively and to respond proactively to the disaster in the rural region. And it sought a solution to the problem and its legal system.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.39-48
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• 2017

National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) has proposed new methodology for estimating unit load in order to overcome the limitations of past unit load based on short-term and local area based data. In the case of agricultural land, however, the results presented by NIER are still limited because of various agricultural activities and farmland characteristics. In this study, liquid manure treated paddy field and organic farming upland were selected for considering agricultural diversity. Four different methods for evaluating unit load were used for comparing previous research results. The results of different methods presented various trends compared with those of existing studies. Paddy field treated liquid manure was 1.3 times higher for T-N load and 3.1 times for T-P load than conventional paddy field. Conventional upland was 4.4 times higher for T-N load and 1.8 times higher for T-P load than organic farming upland. In the case of non-conventional farmland, this study showed different values with the unit loads presented by NIER. This implies that it is necessary to review and apply the unit loads considering various agricultural conditions when establishing environmental policy and rural planning.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.115-126
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• 2020

This study designed an extended technology acceptance model incorporating and combining TPB, TAM, UTAUT, and IDT, which are known to be useful in explaining technology acceptance intention, to analyze antecedents affecting smart farm acceptance intention from the perspective of policy handlers. In the model of this study, nine independent variables were set, including subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, attitude, perceived usefulness, performance expectation, effort expectation, social impact, promotion condition, and fitness. The effect of these variables on farm acceptance intention was analyzed. The study found that four factors, including perceived behavioral control, perceived usefulness, social impact, and fitness, had positive effects on the acceptance intention of smart farms. Of these, perceived usefulness had the highest impact. In conclusion, all the TPB, TAM, UTAUT, and IDT applied to the research hypothesis to explain the smart farm acceptance intention included on or more variables with significant effects. In other words, these theories were evaluated as useful to explain the acceptance intention of smart farms.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.529-543
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• 2024

Purpose: As part of the government's national policy agenda, one of the key initiatives in the Rural Convergence Industry is the selection and cultivation of certified operators. This study aims to specifically analyze the business performance of certified operators, first selected in 2015, based on their characteristics, and to propose improvement measures for the Rural Convergence Industry based on the analysis results. Methods: Data were collected from the certification (renewal) records of the Gyeongnam Sixth Industry Support Center from 2015 to 2023. The R program (R Core Team 2023) was used for data analysis. Results: The performance and role of certified operators are receiving attention to spread and increase awareness of the Rural Convergence Industry. While the location, gender of the representative, type of certified operator, type of convergence industry (6th industry), and main product did not have statistically significant effects on the sales and job changes of certified operators, the sales growth rate according to the management period of certified operators was found to have a statistically significant effect. Conclusion: It was observed that the longer the management period of the certified operator, the more sales increased, with a significant rise in sales growth rate at the early stage of the certified operator. This suggests that to revitalize and successfully promote the Rural Convergence Industry, it is necessary to strengthen the operator certification system and continuously implement various projects to enhance the capabilities of certified operators.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.13-26
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• 2019

The rural areas in South Korea have changed rapidly in the process of national land development. Rural landscapes have become discoloured, and their attractiveness has decreased as cities have expanded. But the attractiveness or multifunctional values of rural areas has become more important in contemporary society around the world. According to this social demand, the efforts of conserving the rural landscape are of high priority and the recovery of ruralism in the area is required. This study has tried to understand how the public image of ruralism in South Korea has been influenced by the news media. The study retrieved news articles using the web searching portal site from the six keywords, commonly used to refer to ruralism, including 'rural landscape', 'rural community', 'rural tourism', 'rural life', 'rural amenity', and 'rural environment'. News data from the six keywords were also collected respectively from within the year-period of 2004-05, 2007-08, 2012-13, and 2016-17. In the text mining analysis, the nouns with high Degree Centrality were figured out, and the changes by year-period were identified. Then, LDA topic analysis was performed for text datasets of six keywords. As a result, the study found that the news articles gave an informed focus on only a handful of issues such as 'poor rural living condition', 'regional or village improvement projects', 'rural tourism promotion projects', and 'other government support projects'. On the other hand, nouns related to virtues and values in the rural landscape were less shown in news articles. These results have become more apparent in recent years. In the topic analysis, 35 topics were identified. 'village development projects', 'rural tourism', and 'urban-rural exchange projects' were appeared repeatedly in several keywords. Among the topics, there are also topics closely related to ruralism such as 'rural landscape conservation', 'eco-friendly rural areas', 'local amenity resources', 'public interest values of agriculture', and 'rural life and communities'. The study presented an image map showing ruralism in South Korea using a network map between all topics and keywords. At the end of the study, implications for Korean rural area policy and research directions were discussed.