국내에서 친환경농법으로 사용되고 있는 왕우렁이는 본래 외국으로부터 들여온 외래종으로 국내의 토종 우렁이와는 다른 종이다. 왕우렁이농법은 논에서 지속적이고 높은 제초효과와 그에 따른 제초제 사용의 감소 및 비용의 절감으로 인하여 국내에서 많이 사용되는 친환경농법의 하나이다. 특히 최근 2008년도 3월에서 5월까지 조류독감의 전국적인 발생으로 인하여 중앙정부와 지방자치단체는 오리농법의 사용을 자제하는 대신에 이를 대체할 농법으로 왕우렁이농법을 권장함으로써

It has continuously promoted to scale up the agricultural management body in order to cope with the market-opening pressure such as the UR negotiation, the DDA negotiation, and more conclusions of FTAs and to enhance the competitiveness of our agriculture. This study evaluated the factors associated with production organization participation centered on environmentally-friendly agriculture farmers in order to improve the production efficiency of environmentally-friendly agriculture in the aspect of production. In order to achieve this objective, this study evaluated the factors that contributed to participating in an organization using the bivariate probit model focusing on environmentally-friendly agriculture farmers in Chungnam. This study examined the validity and reliability of the study model through exploratory factor analysis. The results of factor analyses identified four factors: “distribution”, “production”, “organization operation”, and “social capital”. The results of the bivariate probit model showed that distribution significantly affected production activities and distribution, organization operation, agricultural income, and gender significantly influenced sale activities. Environmentally-friendly production organization had not been able to provide the productive support that was needed for local farmers to produce environmentally-friendly agricultural products in a region. Additionally, farming education did not provide the information needed by the farmers. Although producers had a network within a production organization, it was operated mainly for administrators. Therefore, participants felt somewhat lacking. This study identified the level of organization of producer organizations in Chungnam area, where environmentally-friendly agriculture is well activated. This study suggested implications for future production organization participation by evaluating factors affecting participation quantitatively.

This study was carried out to identify the problems and policy alternatives for the improvement of living conditions and environmentally friendly agriculture. The results of surveys on the current situations of living conditions in the rural areas revealed that the main cause of depopulation in Korean rural villages was the lack of social infrastructure and income sources. The current government policies for agriculture geared mainly for improvement of international comparative competitiveness will result in the further disadvantage against the mountainous regions with marginal agricultural lands. Therefore, it is recommended that the agricultural policy should be complemented by the environmental and social policies in the less favoured areas. This can be justified by the fact that the demand for environmental public goods such as recreational opportunities in rural settings uncontaminated by the industrial wastes is growing.