• Title/Summary/Keyword: hot environment

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Effect of Heating by Nano-Carbon Fiber Infrared Lamps on Growth and Vase Life of Cut Roses and Heating Cost (나노탄소섬유 적외선등 난방이 절화장미의 생육과 수명 및 난방비에 미치는 영향)

  • Lim, Mi-Young;Ko, Chung-Ho;Son, Moon-Sook;Lee, Sang-Bok;Kim, Gil-Ju;Kim, Byung-Soo;Kim, Young-Bok;Jeong, Byoung-Ryong
    • Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.1-8
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    • 2009
  • The greatest and major cost for cut rose production during winter seasons in Korea is cost of heating the greenhouse. A study was conducted on a cost-efficient heating system to reduce expenses of cut rose growers in times of high energy prices. An infrared heating system utilizing radiant energy has an obvious advantage over other heating methods in that the energy is first used to raise temperatures of plants and other objects and subsequently that of the atmosphere, resulting in faster reaching to desired plant temperatures at a reduced heating cost. In this study the heating effect and heating cost saving of a nano-carbon fiber infrared heating system (NCFIHS) installed in cut rose greenhouses in Gimhae, Gyeongnam Province were analyzed comparatively. In addition growth, quality, and vase life of 'Orange Fresh' roses grown in greenhouses heated by NCFIHS against those grown in greenhouses heated by so called an electrical heating system. In greenhouses with a NCFlHS with a set point air temperature of $20^{\circ}C$, plant temperature was maintained at $1{\sim}2^{\circ}C$ higher than the air temperature, and temperatures of growing bed surface and root zone were maintained at $17{\sim}19^{\circ}C$ throughout cold winter nights. The cost for heating in NCFIHS was about 25 and 51% of that of an electrical heating system and a hot water heating system heated by petroleum, respectively. Growth of roses harvested in greenhouses with a NCFIHS was similar to those grown in greenhouses with an electrical heating system. However, cut roses with more intense petal and leaf colors and a longer vase life (fresh weight and amount of water uptake) were harvested in greenhouses with a NCFIHS as compared to those harvested in greenhouses with an electrical heating system.

Effects of Growth and Cellular Tissue under Abnormal Climate Condition in Chinese Cabbage (이상기상 조건이 배추의 생육 및 세포조직에 미치는 영향)

  • Lee, Sang Gyu;Choi, Chang Sun;Choi, Jun Myung;Lee, Hee Ju;Park, Suhyoung;Do, Kyung Ran
    • Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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    • v.22 no.2
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    • pp.87-90
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    • 2013
  • The average annual and winter ambient air temperatures in Korea have risen by $0.7^{\circ}C$ and $1.4^{\circ}C$, respectively, during the last 30 years. Due to climate change, the occurrence of abnormal weather conditions has become more frequent, causing damage to vegetable crops grown in Korea. Hot pepper, chinese cabbage and radish, the three most popular vegetables in Korea, are produced more in the field than in the greenhouse. It has been a trend that the time for field transplanting of seedlings is getting earlier and earlier as the spring temperatures keep rising. Seedlings transplanted too early in the spring take a longer time to resume the normal growth, because they are exposed to suboptimal temperature conditions. This experiment was carried out to figure out the change of cellular tissue of chinese cabbage under the condition of low temperature to provide the information regarding the coming climatic change, on the performance of 'Chunkwang' chinese cabbage during the spring growing season. In our study, plant height, number of leaf, chlorophyll and leaf area was lower at the open field cultivation than heating house treatment after transplanting 50 days. Especially in fresh weight, compared with heating treatment, open field and not heated treatment were notably low with the 1/3 level. Of damage symptoms due to low temperature cabbage leaves about 10 sheets when $-3.0^{\circ}C$ conditions in chinese cabbage was a little bit of water soaking symptoms on the leaves. $-7.4^{\circ}C$ under increasingly severe water soaking symptoms of leaf turns yellow was dry. Microscopy results showed symptoms of $-3.0^{\circ}C$ when the mesophyll cell of palisade tissue and spongy tissue collapse, $-7.4^{\circ}C$ palisade tissue and spongy tissue was completely collapsed. The result of this study suggests that the growers should be cautioned not to transplant their chinese cabbage seedlings too early into the field, and should be re-transplanting or transplanting other plants if chinese cabbage are exposed to suboptimal temperature conditions ($-3.0^{\circ}C$ or $-7.4^{\circ}C$).

Antimicrobial, antifungal effect and safety verification using BCOP assay of extracts from Coptis chinensis (황련(Coptis chinensis) 추출물의 항균, 항진균 효과와 BCOP 분석을 이용한 안전성 검증)

  • Kim, Eun-Hee;Jang, Young-Ah;Kim, Sol-Bi;Kim, Han-Hyuk;Lee, Jin-Tae
    • Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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    • v.61 no.3
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    • pp.297-304
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    • 2018
  • Coptis chinensis is used in oriental medicine for soothing, anti-inflammation, antimicrobial and antipyretic properties, and its main ingredient berberine is known to have strong antibacterial activity. In this study, we investigated the anti-microbial effect of hot water extract of Coptis chinensis (CW) on skin related microorganism and the airborne microbe, the antifungal effects of fungi, which are frequently detected in residential environments. CW showed antibacterial effect against Propionibacterium acnes, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis, against the airborne microbe, which was collected in four different places. At the concentration of 100 mg/mL, the antimicrobial activity continued for 42 days, showed heat stability without change in the antimicrobial activity even after heat treatment. The MIC and MBC of CW against S. aureus was 0.03, 0.05 mg/mL, against S. epidermidis was 0.50, 0.75 mg/mL and against P. acne was 0.10, 0.15 mg/mL. As a result of measuring the MIC of four kinds of fungi with high detection frequency in the surrounding environment, Gliocladium virens was 65 mg/mL by determined as MIC which can inhibit one hundred percent of mycelial growth. The concentration 90 mg/mL was determined as MIC against Aureobasidium pullulans and 100 mg/mL against Penicilium pinophilum and Chaetomium globosum. CW was considered a safe extract that showed no irritation even in the ocular mucous membrane irritation evaluation test, a patch test. Therefore, these results suggest that Coptis chinensis has antimicrobial, antifungal and safety on human body and can be applied to the development of materials for cosmetic and residential environment industries.

Physico.chemical Properties of Peatmoss and Coir Dust Currently Used as Root Medium Components for Crop Production in Korean Plant Factories (국내에서 식물공장용 배지 재료로 유통되는 피트모스와 코이어 더스트의 물리.화학적 특성)

  • Shin, Bo Kyoung;Son, Jung Eek;Choi, Jong Myung
    • Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.362-371
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    • 2012
  • Objective of this research was to secure the information on physical and chemical properties of peatmoss and coir dust. To achieve this, 6 kinds of peatmoss and 10 kinds of coir dust currently used in the country as the root medium components in plant factories were collected and analysed. The mean ${\pm}$ standard deviation (SD) of total porosity and container capacity in peatmoss and coir dust were $79.6{\pm}5.04$ and $83.6{\pm}6.18%$, and $69.9{\pm}10.17$ and $65.9{\pm}3.46%$, respectively. These indicate that peatmoss has higher water holding capacity than coir dust and the characteristics are highly varied among peatmoss. The 4 out of 5 kinds of peatmoss had lower than 10%, but coir dust had 12~26%, of air-filled porosity. The percentage of easily available water and buffering water in peatmoss and coir dust was 18~22 and 11~16% and 9~13 and 5.5~7.5%, respectively. These results indicate that precise irrigation is required when coir dust is used as the root medium. The ranges of pH and electrical conductivity (EC) were 3.46~4.17 and $0.137{\sim}0.253dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ in peatmoss and 5.31~6.48 and $0.250{\sim}0.1.580dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ in coir dust. However, $0.563{\pm}0.83dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ in mean ${\pm}$SD of coir dust EC indicates that it is higher than that of peatmoss, and the coir dust are highly varied in EC. The cation exchange capacity of peatmoss was 3 to 4 times as high as that of coir dust. The coir dust had higher $NO_3$ and $PO_4$ and lower $NH_4$ than peatmoss. The K and Na concentrations in coir dust were extremely high indicating that these ions caused the rising in EC. The percentage of hot water and alkali extracts of peatmoss were 6.67~16.37 and 0~38%, whereas those of coir dust were 30.0~65.1 and 23.1~70.3%. These results mean that possible existence of growth inhibiting materials in coir dust.

Effects of Foliar Application of CaCl2 on Ca Content and Occurrence and Alleviation of Blossom-end Rot of Paprika During High Temperature Season (고온기 CaCl2 엽면 살포가 파프리카 칼슘함량, 배꼽썩음과 발생과 경감에 미치는 영향)

  • Oh, Jeong Sim;Lee, Yong-Beom;Bae, Jong Hyang;Na, Jong Kuk;Choi, Ki Young
    • Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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    • v.30 no.4
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    • pp.263-270
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    • 2021
  • This experiment was carried out to determine the effect of CaCl2 foliar spraying on the inhibition of blossom-end rot (BER) in hot summer paprika (Capsicum annum L. 'Special') cultivation. The effect of CaCl2 application was examined by the foliar application based on different fruit size, frequency, and spraying time. Also, it was investigated the occurrence and alleviation effect of BER symptom. Foliar application of CaCl2 (Ca 0.4%) was conducted by treating a fruit and leaf at 4 to 9 nodes above the crown flowers of each plant with 350 mL per week from June 3 to July 1. When the CaCl2 was sprayed at 7-day intervals for 4 weeks, the Ca content was the lowest in the fruit harvested with BER symptom in 11 to 20 mm of fruit width (FW). Four different regions in both BER symptom and normal fruits showed significant differences of Ca content, the highest was in pedicel, followed by stem-end, middle, and blossom-end. The Ca content increased sharply in normal paprika with 31-40 mm FW, in which Ca content was 78% higher than that of BER. Ca content in the middle and blossom-end of paprika over 21 mm in FW ranged 19.8% to 28.8% in normal fruits and 15.7% to 18.5% in BER, respectively. The incidence of BER increased rapidly by more than 60% in fruits with 31-40 mm FW. While there was no difference in fruit weight among the FW treatment, marketable yield rate was highest in the 21-30 mm FW, and the sugar content was high in the 11-30mm FW. When CaCl2 was applied three times for 7 days to a paprika having a 21- 30 mm FW, the cell wall-bound (CWB) Ca content was the highest and the rate of BER was lowest with 6.3%. After 10 days of CaCl2 foliar spray treatment, the CWB Ca content of paprika increased by 2.9 to 3.5 times compared to the control in all treatments. At 7 days after the CaCl2 foliar spraying once a day at varying spraying time, the leaf burn observed from 9:30 a.m. to 17:00 p.m. and the proline content increased as the spraying time was delayed. Therefore, the CaCl2 foliar spraying method for reducing of BER occurrence during paprika summer cultivation seems to be appropriate to spray 2-3 times at intervals of 3 days and before 8 a.m. at the time when the FW is 21-30 mm.

Effect of Cooling in a Semi-closed Greenhouse at High Temperature on the Growth and Photosynthesis Characteristics in Paprika (고온기 반밀폐형온실 냉방이 파프리카 생육과 광합성 특성에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Eun Ji;Park, Kyoung Sub;Goo, Hei Woong;Park, Ga Eun;Myung, Dong Ju;Jeon, Yong Hwan;Na, Haeyeong
    • Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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    • v.30 no.4
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    • pp.335-341
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    • 2021
  • In this study, experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of high- temperature stress on paprika in a semi-closed greenhouse where cooling is available and a normal plastic greenhouse. Paprika grown in a semi-closed greenhouse in which geothermal cooling is provided showed a significantly higher speed of photosynthesis than paprika grown in a 3-layer plastic greenhouse in which there is no cooling system. It suggests that the photosynthesis speed of paprika in a plastic house decreases owing to high temperature stress. Plant height increased by 13cm more in the semi-closed greenhouse, and the size of leaf showed similar growth speed until the 2nd week after transplanting, however, after 3 weeks, the semi-closed greenhouse showed a big difference by 47% compared with the plastic greenhouse. In terms of the fruit count, the semi-closed greenhouse had 10.6 fruits/plant and the plastic greenhouse had 4.6 fruits/plant, indicating that the semi-closed greenhouse had a higher number of fruits by 130% than the plastic greenhouse. The fruit weight also presented a difference between the semi-closed greenhouse and the plastic greenhouse by 46%, which is 566.7g/plant and 387g/plant, respectively. According to the above mentioned results, it was validated that when paprika is cultivated in a semi-closed greenhouse where a cooling system is applied, photosynthesis and growth were better than in the normal plastic greenhouse. Thus, if the hot summer season is overcome by applying the elemental technologies for the cooling system to the normal plastic greenhouse, farm income may increase through improvement in the yield and quality.

Comparison of Growth Characteristics and Physiological Activity of Two Centella asiatica Cultivars in Greenhouse Soil Culture (시설 내 토경재배에서 병풀(Centella asiatica) 두 품종의 생장특성 및 생리활성 비교)

  • Oh, Sewon;Park, Sujeong;Lee, Seongho;Park, Yeonju;Jang, Keum-Il;Yu, Kwang-Won;Kim, Daeil;Shin, Hyunsuk
    • Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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    • v.30 no.4
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    • pp.351-358
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    • 2021
  • The study was investigated to compare growth characteristics, the antioxidant activity, and the triterpenoid content of two Centella asiatica cultivars ('Giant Tiger Care' and 'Good Tiger Care'). At 41 days after transplanting, lengths of leaf and petiole were significantly longer in 'Good Tiger Care' than in 'Giant Tiger Care'. However, the growth characteristics (leaf area, petiole thickness, petiole length, and weight) were greater in 'Giant Tiger Care' than in 'Good Tiger Care' at 104 days after transplanting (harvest time). Antioxidant activity and total phenol content in four extracts (WE, water extract; HWE, hot water extract; 50E, 50% EtOH extract; 70E, 70% EtOH extract) of the two cultivars were high in 70E of 'Giant Tiger Care'. As a result of the triterpenoids analysis, the major triterpenoids of the two cultivars were identified as madecassoside and asiaticoside. The total triterpenoid content was high in 50E and 70E of 'Giant Tiger Care' and 'Good Tiger Care', respectively but the total triterpenoid content was highest in Good Tiger Care'. However, at the 104 days after planting, the yield of 'Giant Tiger Care' was three times higher than that of 'Good Tiger Care'. In addition, the total triterpenoid content that can be produced in the same cultivation area (3.3m2) was 2.459mg in 50E of 'Giant Tiger Care', which was ~2.2times higher than that of 70E of 'Good Tiger Care' (1.103 mg). Thus, it is considered economical to cultivate 'Giant Tiger Care' which has the highest antioxidant activity and high total triterpenoid production per cultivation area.

Improvement of Fatigue Life with Local Reinforcement for Offshore Topside Module during Marine Transportation (해양플랫폼 탑사이드 모듈의 해상 운송 시 국부 보강을 통한 피로 수명 개선에 관한 연구)

  • Jang, Ho-Yun;Seo, Kwang-Cheol;Park, Joo-Shin
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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    • v.27 no.2
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    • pp.387-393
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    • 2021
  • In this study, finite element analysis was performed to evaluate a method of increasing the fatigue life of the pipe connection structure commonly used in the topside structure of offshore platforms. MSC Patran/Nastran, a commercial analysis program, was used, and the critical structural model was selected from the global analysis. To realize the stress concentration phenomenon according to the load, modeling using 8-node solid elements was implemented. The main loads were considered to be two lateral loads and a tensile load on a diagonal pipe. To check the hotspot stress at the main location, a 0.01 mm dummy shell element was applied. After calculating the main stress at the 0.5-t and 1.5-t locations, the stress generated in the weld was estimated through extrapolation. In some sections, this stress was observed to be below the fatigue life that should be satisfied, and reinforcement was required. For reinforcement, a bracket was added to reduce the stress concentration factor where the fatigue life was insufficient without changing the thickness or diameter of the previously designed pipe. Regarding the tensile load, the stress in the bracket toe increased by 23 %, whereas the stress inside and outside of the pipe, which was a problem, decreased by approximately 8 %. Regarding the flexural load, the stress at the bracket toe increased by 3 %, whereas the stress inside and outside of the pipe, which was also a problem, decreased by approximately 48 %. Owing to the new bracket reinforcement, the stress in the bracket toe increased, but the S-N curve itself was better than that of the pipe joint, so it was not a significant problem. The improvement method of fatigue life is expected to be useful; it can efficiently increase the fatigue life while minimizing changes to the initial design.

A Study on the Landscape Cognition of Wind Power Plant in Social Media (소셜미디어에 나타난 풍력발전시설의 경관 인식 연구)

  • Woo, Kyung-Sook;Suh, Joo-Hwan
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.50 no.5
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    • pp.69-79
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    • 2022
  • This study aims to assess the current understanding of the landscape of wind power facilities as renewable energy sources that supply sightseeing, tourism, and other opportunities. Therefore, social media data related to the landscape of wind power facilities experienced by visitors from different regions was analyzed. The analysis results showed that the common characteristics of the landscape of wind power facilities are based on the scale of wind power facilities, the distance between overlook points of wind power facilities, the visual openness of the wind power facilities from the overlook points, and the terrain where the wind power facilities are located. In addition, the preference for wind power facilities is higher in places where the shape of wind power facilities and the surrounding landscape can be clearly seen- flat ground or the sea are considered better landscapes. Negative keywords about the landscape appear on Gade Mountain in Taibai, Meifeng Mountain in Taibai, Taiqi Mountain, and Gyeongju Wind Power Generation Facilities on Gyeongshang Road in Gangwon. The keyword 'negation' occurs when looking at wind power facilities at close range. Because of the high angle of the view, viewers can feel overwhelmed seeing the size of the facility and the ridge simultaneously, feeling psychological pressure. On the contrary, positive landscape adjectives are obtained from wind power facilities on flat ground or the sea. Visitors think that the visual volume of the landscape is fully ensured on flat ground or the sea, and it is a symbolic element that can represent the site. This study analyzes landscape awareness based on the opinions of visitors who have experienced wind power facilities. However, wind power facilities are built in different areas. Therefore, landscape characteristics are different, and there are many variables, such as viewpoints and observers, so the research results are difficult to popularize and have limitations. In recent years, landscape damage due to the construction of wind power facilities has become a hot issue, and the domestic methods of landscape evaluation of wind power facilities are unsatisfactory. Therefore, when evaluating the landscape of wind power facilities, the scale of wind power facilities, the inherent natural characteristics of the area where wind power facilities are set up, and the distance between wind power facilities and overlook points are important elements to consider. In addition, wind power facilities are set in the natural environment, which needs to be protected. Therefore, from the landscape perspective, it is necessary to study the landscape of wind power facilities and the surrounding environment.

A study on the improvement of distribution system by overseas agricultural investment (해외농업투자에 따른 유통체계 개선방안에 관한 연구)

  • Sun, Il-Suck;Lee, Dong-Ok
    • 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.

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