• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.349-357
• /
• 2004

Emergy is a measure of the processes required to produce something expressed in units of the same energy form. Emergy based indices can provide insights into the thermodynamic efficiency of the process, the quality of its output, and the interaction between the process and its surrounding environment. However, in an industrial system, the inputs are mostly nonrenewable, renewable energy source is nearly zero, ultimate purpose is pursuit of profits in economic activity. In study, we present two indices based on emergy - EEE(Ecological Economic Efficiency) and ERI(Environmental Responsibility Index). The EEE is taken into account real value of product in market economy. The ERI is shown to be a function of the net yield of the economy, its ‘load’ on the environment and ecological economic efficiency. Manufacturing industry of Korea produced the 30% of total GDP in 2001. We applied these indices to manufacturing industry for environmental management and further sustainable industry. As a results, the highest ERI is 0.34 in recycling industries, the lowest ERI is 0.01 in coke, refined petroleum products which is dominated by ELR. The higher ERI, the more friendly to environment. The suggested indices help us understand relative contributions of various alternatives in company's production and consumption activity, and provide a tool of decision-making for the rearrangement of future industries. Furthermore, they contribute to environmental friendly operation and consumption.

• KSBB Journal
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.89-95
• /
• 2009

Biodiesel (fatty acid alkyl esters), which is produced from sustainable resources such as vegetable oil, animal fat and waste oils, have used to as substitutes for petro-diesel. In this study, we investigate the performance of 30 L and 300 L pilot-scale biodiesel production system using alkali-catalyst transesterification from soybean oil and rapeseed oil produced at Jeju island in Korea. The 30 L-scale biodiesel production was performed to in the condition of reaction temperature $65^{\circ}C$, catalyst amount 1% (w/w) and oil to methanol molar ratio 1 : 8. At that reaction condition, the fatty acid methyl ester contents of product are above 98% within reaction time 30 min. Also, the conversion yield of over 98% was obtained in 300 L-scale biodiesel production system using rapeseed oil and soybean oil. The quality of biodiesel produced from reaction system was satisfied to recommended quality standard of Korea. Our results may provide useful information with regard to the scale-up of more economic and efficient biodiesel production process.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.26 no.9
• /
• pp.1087-1099
• /
• 2017

Emergy methodology was used to analyze the biophysical basis of Korean agriculture and assess its sustainablility. Total yearly emergy input into Korean agriculture was $7.72{\times}10^{22}sej/yr$ in 2013. Purchased inputs were the dominant emergy source, accounting for 90.1% ($6.95{\times}10^{22}sej/yr$) of the annual input. This clearly indicates that the Korean agriculture is a modern, industrialized system that depends mostly on market goods and services derived from nonrenewable resources. The monetary equivalent of the total emergy input was 18.9 trillion \/yr, 1.5 times greater than the total production cost from farm expense surveys. Emergy return on investment of Korean agriculture was low, with an emergy yield ratio of 1.11. Korean agriculture appears to exert pressure on the environment as revealed by the high environmental loading ratio of 9.30. With very low emergy input from renewable sources (9.7%) and high environmental pressure, Korean agriculture is not sustainable, with an emergy sustainability index of 0.12. This study suggests that higher use efficiency of and lower dependence on nonrenewable purchased inputs need to be prioritized in an effort to enhance the sustainability of Korean agriculture.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.50 no.2
• /
• pp.108-111
• /
• 2005

A field study was conducted to develop an economically suitable combination of organic and inorganic fertilizers for sugarcane cultivation in sandy acidic soil of a commercial sugarcane farm under Old Himalayan Piedmont Plain of Bangladesh. Results revealed that the treatment $T_4$ which received $75\%$ of Recommended fertilizers (N 120, P 35, K 100, S 25, Zn 2 kg $ha^{-1}$) + 10 Mg $ha^{-1}$ Rice mill ash + Mg $ha^{-1}$ press mud significantly produced higher sugarcane yield (72.34 Mg $ha^{-1}$) among all the treatments except $T_5$ having $100\%$ of Recommended fertilizers + 10 Mg $ha^{-1}$ Rice mill ash + 10 Mg $ha^{-1}$ press mud, which was identical. $T_4$ also gave the highest net economic benefit at Bangladesh Taka 15,920.47 per hectare from the added nutrient management. Thus, the integrated use with organic and inorganic fertilizer is highly essential for sustainable production of sugarcane in commercial farm of the region in Bangladesh, where it has been grown year after year.

• Research in Plant Disease
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.78-83
• /
• 2002

Tobacco diseases have not been recorded until 1900s in Korea, where tobacco plants were introduced at early 1700s. Practical researches on the disease have been conducted since mid 1960s. Major ten tobacco diseases were mosaic caused by tobacco mosaic virus·potato virus Y·cucumber mosaic virus, bacterial wilt, hollow stalk, wild fire caused by angular leaf spot strain, black shank, brown spot, powdery mildew and fusarium wilt. But their annual occurrences were varied according to changes of tobacco varieties and their cultivating practices. As no useful chemicals, several biological tactics have been developed to control the viral or bacterial diseases that give significant economic damages on sustainable crop yield, but not practicable to field farming condition yet. Transgenic tobacco plants containing foreign disease resistant genes have been developed by current bio-technology, but not released to farmers yet. Though some disease-resistant tobacco varieties have been developed by the conventional breeding technology and currently used by farmers, their disease controlling efficacy have been diminished by occurrence of the new strain or race. Future research on tobacco diseases has been focused on technical development to produce high quality tobacco with less production cost, which leads Korean tobacco industry to keep its competence against foreign industry and decreasing overall market.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.45-71
• /
• 2001

The duck-rice forming system is increasingly spread up throughout Korea since 1992. It is discussed the rice field, rice quality, weed and pest management in the duck-rice weeding system compared to conventional farming system. Moreover the optimizing duck population, system management and fertilizer application rate were reported. Energy input and output by duck-rice farming system were carefully compared with those of low input sustainable paddy field and conventional farming paddy field. To find out the environmentally sound function of duck-rice system, the total nitrogen in paddy soil and paddy water, and nitrogen cycle in paddy rice cultivation system were analysed. finally the input and output were calculated, and ecological characteristic were determined in terms of nitrogen balance, labor input, animal input, renewable energy input, turnover of soil organic matter, energy loss, non-renewable indirect and direct energy input. It was concluded duck-rice weeding system could be recommended in terms of net only environmentally sound, but also farmer's income. But there are still some research needs for successful adaption of duck-rice farming to investigate to determine the optimal population of duck in rice paddy field unit, release time of duckling, duck management after release, and strategy for duck marketing and duck processing.

• Journal of Marine Bioscience and Biotechnology
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.94-101
• /
• 2007

The status of recently expanded exotic pangasiid catfish Pangasius hypophthalmus, Pangasiidae farming in rural Bangladesh has been studied for finding research needs, through knowing the culture methods, associated activities and problems, to make the farming sustainable. Data were collected using participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools in nine villages in three upazilas (sub-district) of Mymensingh district. The farmers have not got any formal training and have developed their knowledge on farming the fish through practice over years and sharing of knowledge among fellow farmers. Linked industries, e.g. hatcheries, nurseries, feed mills, trading of feed and fish etc. have developed that created employment opportunities. Most of the farmers produce two crops a year. About 90% of the farmers were found to practice mono culture of pangasiid catfish at high stocking density. The feeding rates started from 10-15% of the body weight per day at fingerling stage that reduced to 4-6% with growth. The average yield was found to be 25 tonslha/year. The livelihood of the farmers has been improved through farming the fish. Women and children were rarely engaged in the activities. The identified major problems in farming the fish were water quality deterioration, high feed costs and declining consumer demand and market price.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.7 no.10
• /
• pp.621-628
• /
• 2020

The study investigates a promising sustainable crop-insurance risk mitigation plan, namely, Group Risk Income Protection (GRIP) insurance, for the cultivation of Para rubber, a crop for which Southern Thailand constitutes over half of the national harvested area, but which recently experienced a shift in prices and yields, substantially affecting farmers. The research takes as its starting point historical data covering the 2001-2018 period for this crop's cultivation in three of Thailand's Andaman South Coast provinces - Trang, Krabi, and Phangnga. The results indicate that, from a relatively high base in 2001, Trang's yields dropped sharply before a more gradual decline (apparently still ongoing), whereas those for Krabi and Phangnga followed a smoother downward trajectory throughout the period. Meanwhile, prices everywhere rose steadily before falling from 2011 onwards - a decrease that shows no signs of abating. The yield/price relationship was negative for one province and slightly positive for the other provinces. Furthermore, all provinces' Para rubber income initially grew continually but fell after 2011, with this trend seemingly persisting to this day. The paper's findings suggest that, after early moves to entrench GRIP insurance, it looks set to become a feasible option for Para rubber, making policy agreement details an interesting subject for subsequent investigations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
• /
• 2015.10a
• /
• pp.147-148
• /
• 2015

To achieve high-yield, high-quality and safely sustainable development of agricultural and establish the standardization of agricultural production, processing, circulation management system, scientific methods must be used. But in plastic greenhouse, the traditional manual measurement way is still used in cultivation and measurement of relative humidity. In order to improve the efficiency of farm work, to make agricultural production more modernization, this paper combining with the sensor and display device to build a environment which can automatically adjust the humidity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
• /
• 1998.10a
• /
• pp.210-232
• /
• 1998

Tong-il, the high-yielding rice variety bred on early 1970, effected a turning point in modern rice production in Korea. As rice production reached the highest record yield in 1978 with HYV, Korea achieved self-sufficiency in domestic supply of rice (or the first time in (her own) history, HYV required high input of fertilizers and pesticides for proving its yielding ability and needed new techniques such as early nursery-planting to prevent chilling damage. But, farm economy did not follow the successful achievement of rice production because of increased farming cost and inflation.'Tong-il variety has been replaced by new high-yielding Japonica varieties from 1980 when record-low-temperature during summer months had persisted. Also, the cooked rice of Tong-il variety did not agree with the appetite of Korean people. Though the hectarage of Tong-il rice did reduce, farmers applied the same high-input cultural techniques for new Japonica cultivars as did for Tong-il variety. Heavy application of nitrogen fertilizer contaminated surface and ground water with nitrate ions while phosphorous fertilizer was blamed for algae pollution. Frequent spray of pesticide and herbicide reduced significantly the biotic population in paddy ecosystems including insects and soil microorganisms. The new technologies of the 21st century must be directed to produce safe food, to save natural resources, and to preserve a clean environment for human welfare. We need low-input sustainable farming techniques to provide high-yielding crops and to preserve a healthy ecosystem.