Laos People’s Democratic Republic (Laos) is a country selected by Korea’s priority foreign policy – New Southern Policy. It is also one of Korea’s 24 priority partner countries. The objective of this study was to understand the current status of rice industry and recommendations for improving rice productivity in Laos based on “Agriculture Development Strategy to 2025 and Vision to the Year 2030” published by the Lao government. In Laos, major crops are rice, vegetables, maize, coffee, cassava, sugar cane, and others. Laos achieved rice self-sufficiency in 1999. Its rice production reached up to 3,580,000 tons in 2018. It aims to harvest a total of 5 million tons of paddy rice with a target yield of approx. 1.5 million tons in 2025. Rice consumption per capita totals 160 kg/year in Laos, the highest in the world. The national nutrient program sets its targets as follows: of 2,600 kcal, a recommended daily calorie intake for adults, it aims to lower rice and starch, while increasing calories from meat, vegetables, fat, and so on. This shows that the rice policy is formulated with consideration of improving health of people in Laos as well as boosting rice exports. Based on the agricultural policy and strategy of Laos, it is viewed that the rice industry in Laos can advance further and produce results only when rice industry is linked to the following areas: economic development, farm size expansion, higher productivity through novel varieties and cultivation technologies, scaling-up of agricultural mechanization, greater efficiency in processing, and infrastructure expansions such as roads and reservoirs. If an ODA (Official Development Assistance) project takes a tailored approach considering its actor-specific characters and tasks, it is believed that the project can contribute to the goal of securing sustainability for the rice industry.

KOPIA 필리핀 센터는 2015년부터 2019년까지 벼 우량종자 증식과 보급 시범사업을 위해 Iloilo 지역 시범마을에 양수기 지원 및 관개수로 확충을 통하여 Sinibaan 50 ha와 Tabucan 65 ha 등 총 115 ha 면적의 관개시설과 ‘Milyang 23’ 등 다수성 품종과 재배기술을 지원하였다. Bohol 지역 시범마을은 japonica 벼 품종 ‘MS 11’의 고순도 종자를 시범마을 농가에 분양하고 재배기술을 지원하였으며 대량 재배를 통해 주변 시장과 연계하는 고급브랜드화 사업을 추진하였다. Iloilo와 Bohol 2개 지역에서의 필리핀 벼 종자증식 및 보급 시범마을사업의 성과분석 결과, 본 사업은 마을에서 요구하는 벼 재배 맞춤형 기술지원과 적절한 기반시설 투입을 통해 다음과 같은 결과를 얻었다. 1. 2개 지역 시범마을사업 추진 결과 벼의 평균 생산량은 25.6~29.7%가 증가하였다. 2. 시범마을사업 추진을 통해 2개 지역 평균 순소득은 2~3 배가 향상되었다. 3. 이중차분법(DID)을 이용하여 분석한 농가 소득은 Iloilo 주 건기 22.2%, 우기 0.2%, Bohol 주 건기 47.3%, 우기 48.5%로 향상되었다. 4. 시범마을사업 참여 농가의 만족도와 계속 참여 의향은 7 점 만점에 5.4~6.7 범위로 향후 동일한 사업이 진행된다면 다시 참여하겠다는 농가 비율이 상대적으로 높은 경향을 보였다.

This study was conducted to investigate farmers’ satisfaction in organic farming technologies developed by the Rural Development Administration (RDA). The survey targeted farmers who were eco-friendly or interested in eco-friendly agriculture. 70% of the target farmers were doing eco-friendly farming, and the satisfaction rate of the technology developed by the RDA was 3.85 points. The satisfaction of the farmers who participated in demonstration and demonstration of the farming field of the developed technology was 4.00 and the satisfaction level of organic farming instruction manual was 3.95. In addition, 38.4% of the surveyed areas were found to be pest control areas, and the impacts on the satisfaction of the organic cultivation related technology utilization and the satisfaction of the organic cultivation guide were analyzed. As a result, the RDA needs to develop and supply customized technology for aged small farmers.

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.

The occurrence and management of disease and pests in six organic peach orchards were surveyed from March 2015 to March 2017. In this period, the number of certified organic and non-chemical peach farms increased to 65.5% and 31.7%, respectively. Certified organic peach farms were selected based on more than 4,000 ㎡ of cultivation area and three tons of production, and their cultivation status was examined. All of the farms were either cultivated green manure crop or sod, and limited vegetation control to a minimum. For the management of soil nutrients, many farmers used livestock manure, oilcake and self-manufacturing liquid fertilizer. It was surveyed that bordeaux mixture, lime sulfur, pheromone for mating disruption of moths and plant extract were used for disease and pest control. The damage caused by the pests and diseases were 31.6% and 24.1%, respectively. The oriental fruit moth showed the highest damage rate (13.5%) in the organic peach orchards, followed by the brown rot (13.0%), peach fruit moth (7.3%) and bacterial shot hole (7.3%).

본 연구는 유기농경지의 지속가능한 토양양분관리를 위해 유기농가의 자재의존도와 자 재에 의한 토양 특성변화를 알아보기 위하여 2016년 3월부터 6월까지 10년 이상 유기농을 실천한 토양의 화학적 특성과 함께 유기농가의 토양 관리를 위해 사용한 자재의 종류를 조 사하였다. 그 결과 유기농가에서는 토양 양분관리를 위해 주로 자가제조퇴․ 액비 및 시판자 재를 사용하고 있어 외부 투입자재의 사용빈도가 높음을 알 수 있었다. 그 중 57%는 가축 분뇨가 포함된 자재를 이용하여 토양관리를 하고 있었고 자재 성분분석 결과 가축분의 구 성 비율에 따라 자재의 성분함량이 다양하게 나타났다. 토양분석결과 10년 이상 유기농재 배를 한 지점의 양분함량은 대체로 높은 경향을 보였으며 농가에서 주로 사용하는 자재에 따라 토양 화학성이 차이가 나는 것을 알 수 있었다. 특히 가축분퇴비를 주로 사용하는 농 가는 교환성 칼슘과 칼륨이 과잉 존재하는 경향을 보였다. 또한 시판자재 분석결과 부숙유 기질비료는 가축분의 종류와 비율에 따라 성분함량 차이가 크게 나타났다. 이러한 외부투 입자재에 의존한 토양관리는 토양 내 양분 불균형을 야기할 수 있다. 토양 내 양분 불균형 은 작물 생산성을 악화시키고 환경오염의 우려가 있어 농가 및 연구현장에서 이를 개선하 기 위한 노력이 필요하다. 농가수준에서 토양 양분관리를 위해 사용하기 용이한 시판 부숙 유기질비료의 성분함량을 고려한 신중한 투입이 필요하며, 또한 이러한 유기농경지에서의 양분 불균형 해소를 위해 집적된 양분의 이용률을 증대시키는 방안에 대한 연구가 필요할 것으로 생각된다.

This study was conducted to determine the effects of organic vegetable cultivation on the soil physical properties in 33 farmlands under plastic greenhouse in Korea. We were investigated 5~8 farms per organic vegetable crops during the period from August to November 2014. The main cultivated vegetables were leafy lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), Perilla leaves (Perilla frutescens var. Japonica Hara), cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), strawberry (Fragaria ananassa L.) and tomato (Lycopersicon spp.). We have analyzed soil physical properties. The measured soil physical parameters were soil plough layer, soil hardness, penetration resistance, three soil phase, bulk density and Porosity. The measurement of the soil plough layer, soil hardness and penetration resistance were carried out direct in the fields, and the samples for other parameters were taken using the soil core method with approximately 20 mm diameter core collected from each organic vegetable field. Soil plough layer was average 36 cm and ranged between 30 and 50 cm, and slightly different depending on the sorts of vegetable cultivation. The soil hardness was 0.17±0.15~1.34±1.02 in the topsoil, 0.55±0.34~1.15±0.62 in the subsoil. It was not different between topsoil and subsoil, but showed a statistically significant difference between the leafy and fruit vegetables. Penetrometer resistance is one of the important soil physical properties that can determine both root elongation and yield. The increase in density under leafy vegetables resulted in a higher soil penetrometer resistance. Soil is a three-component system comprised of solid, liquid, and gas phases distributed in a complex geometry that creates large solidliquid, liquid-gas, and gas-solid interfacial areas. The three soil phases were dynamicand typically changed in organic vegetable soils under greenhouse. Porosity was characterized as range of 54.2±2.2~60.3±2.4%. Most measured soils have bulk densities between 1.0 and 1.6 g cm-3. To summarize the above results, Soil plough layer has been deepened in organic vegetable cultivation soils. Solid hardness (the hardness of the soil) and bulk density (suitable for the soil unit mass) have been lowered. Porosity (soil spatial content) was high such as a well known in organic farmlands. Important changes were observed in the physical properties according to the different vegetable cultivation. We have demonstrated that the physical properties of organic cultivated soils under plastic greenhouse were improved in the results of this study.

The upland soils (56 samples) from organic farms in Gyeonggi-do (12 sites), Gangwon-do (8 sites), Chungcheong-do (14 sites), Gyeongsang-do (4 sites), Jeollado (18 sites) in Korea were collected and their physical and chemical properties were analyzed by RDA’s methods. In the results of physical property, the bulk density of soils averaged 1.14 Mg m-3 (surface soil), 1.38 Mg m-3 (subsoil), respectively. The porosity of them was 57%, 48%. Organically managed soil’s (OS) bulk density was lower than conventional soil’s but OS’s porosity was a little higher than conventionally managed soil in surface soil. The depth of plough layer in organically managed soils was 21.2 cm indicating that the organic farming had good effect on soil physical property. In the results of chemical property, the surface soil pH was 6.9 and the contents of organic matter (OM) was 26 g kg-1, available phosphate (Avail. P2O5) was 554 mg kg-1, exchangeable calcium (Exch. Ca) was 8.9 cmolc kg-1, exchangeable potassium (Exch. K) was 0.89 cmolc kg-1, exchangeable magnesium (Exch. Mg) was 2.0 cmolc kg-1. The subsoil pH was 6.8 and the contents of OM was 21 g kg-1, avail. P2O5 was 491 mg kg-1, exch. Ca was 7.9 cmolc kg-1, exch. K was 0.68 cmolc kg-1, exch. Mg was 1.8 cmolc kg-1. The nutrient accumulation emerged in organic farming. Compared to the optimum nutrient range for the conventional upland soils, the exceed rate of pH, OM, available phosphate, and exchangeable Ca, K, and Mg was 79, 52, 64, 84, 66% and 55%, respectively, which mainly resulted from the over-application of lime materials or livestock manure compost. With these results it is suggested thatorganic farm need to reduce the use of inputs, which make soil alkalification or nutrient accumulation. More study on effects of inputs on lowering soil pH from alkalification could help organically managed soil to be improved.

To investigate the technology trends in organic farming using journal article analysis, total 2,378 published articles in organic farming between 1974 and 2014 were analyzed. The number of the articles published in organic farming has been steadily increased since 2006. As for category, articles in the field of producing the safe organic products and management (A) were published relatively dominantly, especially division of nutrient and soil management (AA). In the foreign countries, lots of articles in environmental assessment and safety field (B) were published than Korea. the main institutes published the articles in organic farming were Swedish University, Sweden and US department of Agriculture, USA. In case of Korea, the articles in the field of environmental assessment and safety (B) were relatively merely published, especially division of environment in organic farming (BA). With this study, more research based on the environment and safety fields in organic farming should be focused on.

To investigate the technology trends in organic farming using patent analysis, total 1,026 patents in organic farming in Australia, EU, Japan, Korea and USA between 1974 and 2014 were analyzed. The number of the patents applied in organic farming was largest in Korea, followed by Japan and the USA. Since 2000, the patent application in Korea and USA increased drastically, while in Japan the patents in organic farming were applied steadily in the late 1980s. The applied patents in organic farming were mainly dominated in the field of organic production technology (AA) especially in Korea, while those in environmental assessment were merely applied. Most patent appliers were biased to private applier (80%) than national institutes including university. With this study, it is highly recommended that national interests and R&D on the organic farming fields are needed to meet the food safety.