In Laos, smallholder cattle farmers rely primarily on natural grassland grazing, which needs to be improved for fattening. Notably, most cattle prices are determined by the middleman, by looking, so buyers tend to undervalue their price, which makes cattle farming a minimal investment. Urea-Molasses Block (UMB) supplements can effectively enhance a nutrient diet in low-quality roughage systems. This study aimed to determine factors affecting UMB and farmers’ Willing To Pay (WTP) for UMB as a new input material with data from six villages, two districts of the Vientiane Capital, in January and July 2019. The results indicate that farmers with relatively high education, consent to the positive effect of UMB, and previous experience purchasing feed during the dry season are more likely to pay a high positive WTP. The average WTP for UMB ranges from USD 5.7 to 6.5 per month for one cattle, which is approximately 10.2~11.6% of current annual costs for average smallholder cattle farmers. These findings will be significant in improving productivity at the initial development stage of farms in Laos, especially for smallholder farmers.

To assist farmers in shifting from subsistence to commercial agriculture, the government of Laos has promoted farmer organizations throughout the country. The farmer production groups have gradually transformed and emerged into strong cooperatives or associations. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors affecting farmers’ participation in FPGs. Data were collected from primary and secondary sources. A total of 140 respondents participated in a field survey in three kumb ban (village groups) in the Xepon District. Descriptive statistics and binary logistics regression models were used to analyze the data. The results show that the education level of household head, farmland size, access to credit, and perceived trust for farmer production group membership are significantly different from those who are non-members of the groups. However, non-members of FPGs face more constrain in accessing the market, as compared to the members of FPGs. The empirical results from the Binary Logit Model indicate that education level of headed household, farmland size, access to credit, perceived trust, and constraint to market are factors that significantly determine farmers’ participation in FPGs. This study contributes to the empirical literature by providing a better understanding of farmer participation in the groups. The government of Laos should consider and promote access to credit, farmer learning, and market integration to improve farmers' participation in FPGs.

Ecological occupation in irrigation ponds is a well-acknowledged fact that is essential for biodiversity conservation in agricultural ecosystems. However, there are few studies on the ecological functions and relationship between a paddy field and irrigation using macroinvertebrates in an environmentally friendly paddy field. The objective of this study is to identify the community and distribution characteristics of macroinvertebrates in an agricultural paddy field and irrigation pond ecosystems, and to provide basic data on the ecological function of an environmentally friendly paddy field. Macroinvertebrate sampling was conducted from May to September in an agricultural paddy field and irrigation pond in an environment-friendly paddy field in Boryeong city. We conducted a study to identify the distribution characteristics using macroinvertebrate species analysis, such as Functional Feeding Groups (FFGs), Habitat Oriented Groups (HOGs), rarefaction curve, and a two-way dendrogram. A total of 37 species of macroinvertebrates in 28 families, 13 orders were collected study during the period of the investigation. Dominant taxa of macroinvertebrates included Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Odonata. In terms of FFGs, predators and gathering collectors accounted for approximately 70%, in relation to HOGs, and climbers and swimmers occupied more than 50% from both the paddy field and irrigation pond. With respect to the rarefaction curve, the irrigation pond (July) was high as E (S, 141)=18 species, while the paddy field (May) was comparatively low as E (S, 141)=9 species. In conclusion, our results revealed that macroinvertebrates, such as Notonecta triguttata, Peltodytes intermedius, Appasus major, Laccotrephes japonensis, Appasus japonicus, Sigara substriata, Enochrus simulans, and Sternolophus rufipes, were used as a habitat and spawning ground in both paddy field and irrigation pond. The irrigation pond appears to be a very important spawning ground for macroinvertebrates.

Agricultural risks are exacerbated by a variety of factors ranging from climatevariability and change, frequent natural disasters, uncertainties in yields and prices, weakrural infrastructure, imperfect markets and lack of financial services including limited spanand design of risk mitigation instruments such as credit and insurance. Indian agriculture has little more than half (53%) of its area still rainfed and this makes it highly sensitive to vagaries of climate causing unstable output. Besides adverse climatic factors, there are man-made disasters such as fire, sale of spurious seeds, adulteration of pesticides and fertilizers etc., and all these severely affect farmers through loss in production and farm income, and are beyond the control of farmers. Hence, crop insurance’ is considered to be the promising tool to insulate the farmers from risks faced by them and to sustain them in the agri-business. This paper critically evaluates the performance of recent crop insurance scheme viz., Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana (PMFBY) and its comparative performance with earlier agricultural insurance schemes implemented in the country. It is heartening that, the comparative performance of PMFBY with earlier schemes revealed that, the Government has definitely taken a leap forward in covering more number of farmers and bringing more area under crop insurance with the execution of this new scheme and on this front, it deserves the appreciation in fulfilling the objective for bringing more number of farmers under insurance cover. The use of mobile based technology, reduced number of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) and smart CCEs, digitization of land record and linking them to farmers' account for faster assessment/settlement of claims are some of the steps that contributed for effective implementation of this new crop insurance scheme. However, inadequate claim payments, errors in loss/yield assessment, delayed claim payment, no direct linkage between insurance companies and farmers are the major shortcomings of this scheme. This calls for revamping the crop insurance program in India from time to time in tune with the dynamic changes in climatic factors on one hand and to provide a safety-net for farmers to mitigate losses arising from climatic shocks on the other. The future research avenues include: insuring the revenue of the farmer (Price x Yield) as in USA and more and more tenant farmers should be brought under insurance by doling out discounts for group coverage of farmers like in Philippines where 20 per cent discount in premium is given for a group of 5-10 farmers, 30 per cent for a group of 10-20 and 40 per cent for a group of >20 farmers.

This paper describes Philippine farmers’ perception on farm mechanization and land reformation. For a survey, 280 farmers were interviewed. According to the survey, Philippine farmerrespondents seem to recognize the many advantages of using farm machines over manual, even if these are expensive and will certainly displace laborers. Although land reformation is known to only one third of the farmers, they understand it as a way of re-structuring roads and fields, and will ease farm management. Philippine farmers’ awareness of farm mechanization and land reformation appears to be very low and they also have financial problems when they consider to adopt farm mechanization and land reformation. Therefor, it is very essential to raise farmer’s awareness and also provide financial subsidy to farmers who have willingness to adopt mechanization and land reformation. Also introduction of farm land bank system like korean experience is recommended as one of alternatives.

South Korea and developing countries like Uganda have sought to re-energize their agriculture sector growth using 6th Industrialization of Agriculture strategies. These strategies seek to upgrade farming households from just being producers or primary industry players to participants in the secondary and tertiary industry. This convergence is known as 1x2x3 = 6th Industrialization. This involves farmers strengthening production and investing in higher value chain activities such as agrotourism, agro-processing, farm restaurants, and the export market. These developments are driven by investment in institutional arrangements and technology that is often beyond the capacity of individual farming households as well as some farmer organizations and cooperatives. Qualitative approaches were used to draw lessons from two typical rice farmer organizations and two rice value addition groups and other sector players to investigate group formation dyanamics and the capacity of farmer organizations to attain goals for grouping. The results show being a member of a farmer organization increases access to inputs such as machinery, however, the key determinant to joining is trust/mistrust of leadership. In regard to attainment of 6th Industrialization, farmer organizations still have to hassle with uncertainty of marketing a new 6th industry product. Nevertheless farmer organizations seem closer to attaining the 6th industry goal due to exposure to primary processing and export business. Some implications have been drawn for Korea as well as localization to Uganda’s situation.

The present study has aimed at analyzing the technical and scale efficiencies of credit utilization by the farmer-borrowers in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, India. DEA approach was followed to analyze the credit utilization efficiency and to analyze the factors influencing the credit utilization efficiency, log-linear regression analysis was attempted. DEA analysis revealed that, the number of farmers operating at CRS are more in number in marginal farms (40%) followed by other (35%) and small (17.5%) farms. Regarding the number of farmers operating at VRS, small farmers dominate the scenario with 72.5 per cent followed by other (67.5%) and marginal (42.5%) farmers. With reference to scale efficiency, marginal farmers are in majority (52.5%) followed by other (47.5%) and small (25%) farmers. At the pooled level, 26.7 per cent of the farmers are being operated at CRS, 63 per cent at VRS and 32.5 per cent of the farmers are either performed at the optimum scale or were close to the optimum scale (farms having scale efficiency values equal to or more than 0.90). Nearly 58, 15 and 28 percents of the farmers in the marginal farms category were found operating in the region of increasing, decreasing and constant returns respectively. Compared to marginal farmers category, there are less number of farmers operating at CRS both in small farmers category (15%) and other farmers category (22.5%). At the pooled level, only 5 per cent of the farmers are operating at DRS, majority of the farmers (73%) are operating at IRS and only 22 per cent of the farmers are operating at CRS indicating efficient utilization of credit. The log-linear regression model fitted to analyze the major determinants of credit utilization (technical) efficiency of farmer- borrowers revealed that, the three variables viz., cost of cultivation and family expenditure (both negatively influencing at 1% significant level) and family income (positively influencing at 1% significant level) are the major determinants of credit utilization efficiency across all the selected farmers categories and at pooled level. The analysis further indicate that, escalation in the cost of cultivation of crop enterprises in the region, rise in family expenditure and prior indebtedness of the farmers are showing adverse influence on the credit utilization efficiency of the farmer-borrowers.

The objective of this study is to examine the potential of cost reduction and factors affecting production cost of Korean farmers. First, the study estimates technical efficiency, allocation efficiency, and cost efficiency of Korean farmers using DEA. Then, Tobit regressions are conducted to identify factors affecting each of the three efficiency scores. The study uses the Farm Household Economy Survey data from the Korean National Bureau of Statistics for the period from 2008 to 2012. Results from DEA show that overall, technical and cost efficiency scores are low, which suggests a great potential of cost reduction for Korean farmers. The results also show relatively large differences in efficiency scores across provinces. Tobit results suggest that farm size, number of family members, operation costs, and invested capital amount are major factors affecting farm efficiencies.

Recently, IPTV population is growing by leaps and bounds. and We performed FGI(Focus Group Interview) with various experts related to agriculture field to establish Agriculture and Fisheries special channel. this growth has social background that is change of paradigm caused by the convergence of broadcasting, demand for Agriculture and Fisheries special channel using new media thanks to interests in Wellbeing, Green food. so we think that we need to consider the way to establish Agriculture and Fisheries special channel and its validity from all angles. that is why we are having a heated discussion with Agriculture and Fisheries marketing experts, farmer, fisher(Korean Cyber Farmer Association), broadcasting experts. Concretely, government budget is needed to establish Agriculture and Fisheries special channel, so we are just about to examine its validity and find business model. to make this discussion detailed, we made 4 subjects. First, Do we need agro-fishery products distribution channel using media? Second, After establishing of Agriculture and Fisheries special channel, how many demands will occur? Third, Should we make Agriculture and Fisheries special channel public channel? Fourth, What would be profit model of Agriculture and Fisheries special channel?

Government Organization and Public Institution have been developed many kinds of agricultural information systems such as agricultural policy, cultivated technology, marketing, and trade so on since 2000. Farm management conditions are diverse and complex more and more. Therefore, farmer want to service the specific agricultural information. Farmer don't like to access many Web sites to retrieve agricultural informations. They hope to receive one-stop its service. Government Organization began to review its information in order to make them more customized agricultural information service. We came up with an effective plan and Service Standardization Code for integrating agricultural technology informations in 2009. We can guide to carry out an effective portal service of agricultural information because we have a good experience about integrating information and system. This paper suggested the service scheme of integrated agricultural information for improving accessibility its information to farmer.

Road-map for the environmental friendly integrated pest management (IPM) of insect pests was drawn up on the strawberry vinyl-houses of farmer’s field. Major insect pests were occurred Tetranychus urticae and Aphis gossypii during the strawberry plant seeding in the vinyl house and open field. Also, same insect pests were occurred in the vinyl house during harvesting season of strawberry. For the control of T. urticae and A. gossypii, Phytoseiulus persimilis and Aphidius colemani as natural enemies were input to the vinyl house, respectively. However, because these natural enemies could not control insect pest populations, acaricide and insecticide were sprayed. Then natural enemies were input again in the vinyl house. Natural enemies could not endure the intense cold and differences of temperature and relative humidity between day and night during strawberry harvesting season. So, their behavior and control activity of pests were more decrease than pests. Firstly, natural enemies are input in the vinyl house during the early breeding season of strawberry, secondly, acaricides and insecticide are sprayed for the control of mites and aphids, respectively, during the middle breeding season in the hard winter. Finally, natural enemies are re-input in the vinyl house during the middle and late breeding season.

Background : Cylindrocarpon root rot, caused by Cylindrocarpon destructans and Fusarium solani, is a major disease which lead to replanting failure in ginseng garden. Chlamydospores of C. destructans, generated by poor environmental condition, can survived more than ten years in soil without host plant, ginseng. Density of soil pathogens gradually decreased as the progress of time since ginseng was harvested. Methods and Results : Soil chemical properties was analyzed from soil samples of 43 regions in farmer’s ginseng garden to study the variation of content and the correlation among inorganic contents. Soil samples of 24 regions was also analyzed to study correlation between progressed-year after ginseng harvest and soil chemical properties. Variation of soil chemical properties in descending order was Fe, Zn, P2O4, NO3, Mn. The content of Fe and Zn were great variation among inorganic chemicals of soil of farmer’s field. Electrical conductivity to induce physiological demage in excessive concentration showed highly significant positive correlation with the content of NO3 and K. As the progress of year after ginseng harvest, the content of organic matter and zinc was increased, while pH and Na were decreased in farmer’s field to cultivate ginseng. There were highly significant positive correlation between the progress of year after ginseng harvest and zinc content in farmer’s field to cultivate ginseng. Ratio of root rot of 2-year-old ginseng showed significant positive correlation with K content, and negative correlation in experimental field cultured by six rotation crops for one year. Conclusion : Root rot by soil pathogens was closely related with the content of potassium and zinc in soil chemical properties.

The major purpose of this study was analyzing of farmer’s intention in related to organic agriculture by using of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Farmers of Chungchung Province (n=164) were administered a questionnaire survey that measured TPB constructs. The data and hypotheses were analyzed using multiple regression and confirmatory factor analysis by SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0. Results showed that attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavior of control were all positively related to farmer’s intention of organic agriculture and explained power of the model was relatively high which was 51 percent. Also the results of the analysis showed that the subjective norm was a key dimension of farmer’s intention in terms of standardized coefficient. The study demonstrated that the reduced theory of planned behavior was fit for factors of farmer’s intention. The meaning of the study and implications for future studies were discussed.

The objective of this study is to analyze the performance and farmer’s awareness on the large-scale environment-friendly agricultural districts (LEAD). For this, we survey 393 farmers who cultivate in the 14 LEAD. Most of farmers aware a necessity of LEAD project. They have a higher awareness and practical use on the ‘production facilities and equipments for environment-friendly agricultural materials’ and ‘resource recovery center of crop-animal farming’. The spread and consciousness on the environment-friendly agriculture increase before LEAD project. Also the environment-friendly agricultural areas and incomes slightly increase. The results of this study show that the LEAD project need a modification in to response to change of agricultural issues and customer’s needs.

바이러스 무병묘의 만기재배를 통한 우량 씨고구마의 안정적 생산과 적응품종 선발을 위하여, 9 품종의 바이러스 무병묘와 농가묘를 7월 10일 75 × 25 cm로 정식하여 흑색비닐로 멀칭재배를 한 다음, 생육특성 및 수량 등을 조사하였다.1. 정식 30일째의 초기생육은 농가묘보다 무병묘에서 줄기 길이, 줄기 직경, 마디수, 곁가지수 등이 유의하게증가하였고, 품종 간에도 유의한 차이를 보였으며, ‘고건미’, ‘신천미’, ‘신황미’, ‘신율미’, ‘연황미’ 등에서 초기생육이 양호하였다. 2. 정식 110일째의 지상부 생육에서 줄기 길이, 줄기 직경, 마디수, 분지수 및 생체중 등은 품종간에 유의한차이를 보였으나, 무병묘와 농가묘간에는 마디수 외에다른 형질들은 유의한 차이를 보이지 않았다.3. 만기재배에 따른 무병묘 수량은 품종에 따라 농가묘보다 12-49% 증수되었으며, 무병묘와 농가묘간 평균수량은각각 1,625 kg/10a과 1,230 kg/10a 으로 무병묘에서 유의하게 증가하였다.4. 씨고구마로 이용할 수 있는 40 g 이상의 상저비율은 무병묘 65.6%, 농가묘 57.8%로 무병묘에서 유의하게 증가하였으며, 무병묘와 농가묘간 상저수량은 각각 1,067 kg/10a과710 kg/10a 이었다.5. 공시된 9품종 중에서 1,300 kg/10a 이상의 상저수량을보인 ‘신자미’, ‘신천미’, ‘신율미’ 등 3품종의 만기재배적응성이 높았다.

Agricultural information was discussed for suggesting tasks and solutions of knowledge based information system. States of agricultural information systems in rural development administration were described and problems and tasks were summarized in knowledge needs survey of farmers who have to decide many alternatives for farming. Hard to access information are soil state, disease and insect pest. Important information in agriculture are water, soil fertility, soil physical property, and accessibility from main road. In conclusion, knowledge based agricultural information system can be developed based on surveyed needs.