The questionnaire survey was conducted on 225 farmers in Gyeonggi-do, Jeollanam-do and Jeollabuk-do. A total of 189 (84%) farmers responded. 72% of the respondents were males, 50.3% were aged 60 or older, and 51.3% had less than 5 years of farming experience. 78.8% of the respondents are pesticide-free, and 44.4% of respondents have less than 0.5 ha of farming scale. 61.4% of the cultivated crops were vegetable crops. The order of seeds and seedlings to buy was tomato (23.3%), cucumber (12.2%) and pepper (10.6%). The cost of purchasing seeds ranged from a minimum of 100,000 won to a maximum of 5 million won. 78.3% of respondents answered that they well-knew or knew about organic seeds. 78.3% of respondents answered that they knew or knew about organic seeds. Of the positive effects of mandatory use of organic seeds, 41.3% of respondents said they would increase confidence in organic certification. However, 41% of respondents who opposed the mandatory use of organic seeds said that “The strengthening of regulations will make organic agriculture more difficult.” When the use of organic seeds is mandatory, 43.4% of the respondents favor direct support for the purchase of organic seeds, which should be supported politically by the state. When organic seeds were supplied, the disease resistant seeds (53.4%) was the preferred characteristic of organic seeds. For the optimal price of organic seeds, 38.6% of respondents wanted the same price as the commercialized conventional seed. In this study, the questionnaire was conducted for three major organic farming regions, but many of the respondents were judged to have a legal position on the mandatory use of organic seeds. Therefore, the results of this study can be used as a basic data for reviewing the legislation on the organic seed production and distribution suitable for the situation of Korean organic farming.
The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of pesticide-related accident on prices and sales of eggs and the perception of food safety accidents among consumers. For this, we analyzed the impact of the pesticide incident on consumers’ purchases by separating large discount stores and eco-friendly specialty stores with econometrics methods. In addition, the value changes for each egg certification were analyzed after the accident. Perception of food safety accidents was conducted through a survey to investigate the awareness of the pesticiderelated accidents, changes in purchases, and the causes of the pesticide accidents. Furthermore, the risk analysis was conducted. This results show the importance of trust and communication in food safety accidents between distributors, consumers and concerned authorities. Also, after the accident, consumers’ interest and premium exist in the breeding process such as animal welfare, not only in the final product. Therefore in order to actively respond to food safety accidents such as pesticidesrelated accident, response and improvement are necessary considering various aspects such as risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication.
This study was initiated to find possibility of substitute of gibberellin acid and to prevent negative girdling effect such as slow growth of ‘Niitaka’ (Pyrus pyrifolia Nakai) trees, a major pear cultivar, at harvest and at 60-, 90-, and 120-d after storage. Seasonal wiring with 3.0-mm-diameter were applied on the main branch at 70, 80, 90, 110, and 130 days after full bloom (DAF) to compare the fruit quality and storability. Fruit weight and sugar contents were the greatly increased by the wiring treatment at 110 DAF, with the lowest values observed for the wiring at 70 DAF. All the wiring treatments reduced fruit acidity but did not affect fruit firmness. a-value on fruit skin was the highest for wiring at 110 DAF and 130 DAF, advancing fruit ripening. The lowest fruit weight loss was occurred at wiring at 110 DAF. a-value on fruit skin was the highest for wiring at 90 DAF and 110 DAF. Wiring at 80 DAF the most increased floral bud diameter, resulting in the lowest L:D ratio of 1.74 observed. As for the mineral nutrients concentrations of floral buds, the concentration of K (0.63%) and Mg (0.31%) were the highest after 80 DAF wiring treatment, whereas Ca and P concentrations did not differ among treatment plots. The leaf K concentrations was the highest in the 130-day wiring treatment (0.76%) and in the control plot (0.78%), whereas there was no significant difference in the concentrations of either Ca or P among treatment plots. Short periods of wiring increased foliar Mg concentrations. In floral buds, carbohy-drates showed a tendency for accumulating at a lower concentrations (7.75%) after 70 DAF wiring treatment, which was a relatively short treatment period. On the other hand, the carbohydrate concentrations in leaves showed a tendency for accumulating at lower concentrations after 130 DAF wiring treatment (2.51%), which is a long treatment period, and in the control plot (2.43%). Wiring increased the size and sugar content of fruits, and influenced fruit storability. For the wiring treatment period was delayed, the carbohydrate concentration in flower buds showed curvilinear correlation and the negative correlation with the carbohydrate in leaf tissue.
The study I was initiated in six private ‘Campbell Early’ vineyards in parts of Jeollanam-do province to relieve symptom of fruit blight mostly due to a high temperature occurred in Summer. High percentage of fruit blight was observed for medium growth of grape trees non-irrigated. In the study II, grape trees treated with 0%, 30% and 60% shade films were investigated for the tree responses, including fruit blight symptom in the research plots. Harvesting time was advanced approximately two weeks by the 30% shade treatment. High percentage of shades increased total shoot length per tree and decreased shoot diameter, with the greatest number of shoots observed for the 30% shade-treated grapes. Light intensity in the tree canopy was approximately 26% decreased by 30% shade treatment. Marketable harvested fruits per tree were 50.6 of 30% shade treatment, 33.6 of 0% shade, and 42.8 of 60% shade. The 30% shade treatment decreased to 11.8% of cluster blight per tree and to 11.2% of berry blight per cluster. The 30% shade treatment increased cluster weight, berry weight, soluble solid contents, and anthocyanin contents.
Ricania sp. is a pest to many crops in Korea. This pest prefers fruit crops especially, blueberry and apple trees. We tested the possibility of Ricania sp. control using of methylcinnamate. In the laboratory bioassay, the mortality of methylcinnamate against Ricania sp. adult with 100 and 250 time diluted solution was 36.6% and 13.3% respectively. While repellent that the use of methylcinnamate resulted rate of 43.3% with 100 time diluted solution and 40.0% in 250 time diluted solution. Insecticidal and repellent effect in semifield bioassay were higher than those in laboratory bioassay. From this result, methylcinnamate might have synergic effect for Ricania sp. management. The result of this study showed a possibility of Ricania. sp. control using methylcinnamate.
Bacillus genus are found abundantly in various sites and their secondary metabolites were used as potential agents in agriculture, notably plant growth promoting and bio-control. The objective of this study was to develop the culture conditions of GH1-13 strain including higher cell growth, stable endospore-forming and enhancement of potential agents which are related with plant growth promoting and phytopathogen suppression. The optimal carbon and nitrogen sources were determined by glucose and soy bean flour, respectively, then resulted in 7.5×109 cells/mL, 6.8×109 endospore cells/mL and sporulation yield of 90% after 30 h cultivation in 500 L submerged fermenter at 37℃, pH 7.0. Cells and cell-free supernatant of GH1-13 strains showed the potent antifungal activity against phytopathogenic fungi of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. It was also confirmed that indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) production of GH1-13 strain was greatly increased by addition of 0.3% tryptophan.
This study was carried out to investigate the effect of legume cover crop culture on earthworm fauna in organic farmland. We compared sod culture with two kinds of legume crops of hairy vetch and crimson clover on organic citrus orchard to natural sod culture and conventional orchards in Jeju Island. We analyzed the soil characteristics and investigated the density of earthworms from the orchards. Organic matter content did not show much difference in soil analysis between organic and conventional orchard. But the biomass of earthworms in organic orchards is 3.8 times to 7.0 times higher than that in conventional cultivated orchards, and individuals of earthworms on organic orchards were 2.3~18 times higher than conventional orchards. The biomass of earthworms on hairy vetch and crimson clover cultivation was 44.8 g, 47.2 g in 2016, and 78.7 g, 31.8 g in 2017, respectively, which were higher than 32.8 g and 9.5 g of those on natural sod cultivation. Through this study, we found that hairy vetch and crimson clover cultivation improve the earthworm occurrence density in the soil on organic citrus orchard.
The study was initiated to compare crop productivity as affected by a long-term application with homemade liquid fertilizers in leading organic cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) farms in Suncheon and Kimcheon provinces. A Suncheon farm have applied an EM (effective organism) liquid fertilizer for one year and fifteen years, designating as EM 1-year and EM 15-year plots, respectively, with 4-year and 5-year application of native microbes-liquid fertilizer in Kimcheon farm, designating as Micro 4-year and Micro 5-year plots, respectively. pH in the EM-liquid fertilizer was high to approximately 7.7, and EC in the Micro-liquid fertilizer was 0.1 dS/m higher than those of EM-liquid fertilizer, with similar macro-nutrient concentrations observed in the both liquid fertilizers. Soil EC was the highest to the 10.0 dS/m for the liquid fertilizer with EM 1-year and showed less than 1.5 dS/m for other liquid fertilizer plots. Micro-liquid fertilizer plots had soil OM contents less than 20 g/kg, which was approximately two times less than those of EM plots. Soil microbial properties were not significantly different among the liquid fertilizer plots. SPAD and PS II values were significantly increased by EM 15-year plots with high levels of soil OM and EC. Liquid fertilizer plot with EM 1-year had high concentrations of T-N, Ca, and Na in the cucumber crops but low concentrations of P and Mg, in particular for low K of 1.2% which was two times less than those of desired level for an optimum cucumber growth. The lowest fruit yield was observed for the liquid fertilizer plot with EM 1-year with the highest soil EC accumulated. Liquid fertilizer plot with EM 15-year produced the expanded volume of crop canopy and increased fruit yield. Therefore, long-term of continuous application with an organic liquid fertilizer would have sustainably improved soil stability and the crop productivity.