This study was conducted to investigate awareness and needs for care farming in South Korea. A questionnaire that includes 20 questions was developed for this study. The survey was answered by the 1,302 respondents who lived in the six cities such as Seoul, Incheon, Daejeon, Daegu, Ulsan, and Gwangju in the period of October 2016. The respondents who were aged over 20 years were recruited by a convenience sampling method. As the results, 50.4% and 40.1% of the respondents reported ‘Know nothing’ and ‘Know of care farming’, respectively. The experience for participating in care farming was low (29.0%). The purposes of participating in care farming reported as experience (31.4%), leisure (25.0%), and education (21.0%). Frequency of visiting for care farming complex was daily (44.3%) and 1 night 2days-3nights 4days (32.9%). Moreover, 67.7% of potential consumers had intention of paying the care farming fee. The acceptable fee reported as an average 11,339 won per day. In addition, needs for care farming complex was very high in the respondents with or without disease. The present study is anticipated to support the needs for care farming complex and provides reference data for administers in care farming.

Developed countries in agriculture like Netherlands, Belgium and England, have managed Green Care policy and project during the last decades. The needs in Green Care is also increasing as new growth power in rural area of Korea. This study investigated sites which are already operating as complex with Green Care theme. This study surveyed the operating conditions like type, scale, location pattern, purpose, customer and finance for cases of the complex. The period of the survey is from 2015. 8. 11 to 2015. 09. 10 for the 24 activated cases in aspect of operation and management. Among the 24 cases, 16 cases were classified as Green Care Complex which facilities are aggregated a place, and the other 8 cases as Green Care Cluster which are distributed at several places. The analysis result showed that there were apparent distinction among cases in total budget, costs of construction, capacity for guest, and the total number of annual visitors. Despite of the type and scale the accommodation cost, the number of workers, and amount of sales have small deviation in distribution of values, although the cases have various type of contents and scale of space. The result of this study can be used as data of bench marking to develop the Green Care Complex or Cluster in rural area.

The purpose of this study is to draw implications and critical success factors by surveying and analysing practice cases of green care in south Korea. To achieve the object of this study, many valuable cases were checked through preceding researches and internet informations. Case study targets were divided into side-work farmer type, professional farmer type, and Institution directed type, and then case study surveys were performed by each type. Every case has the natural environment in common, and tries to satisfy users’s demands and to give the opportunity to communicate. Especially, the strong motivation, mind, and entrepreneurship of operators are very important factors for green care. If the development of government supporting policies and related education programs are accompanied with lots of potential such as Korean oriental medicine, rural tourism village, and sixth industry project, it will be possible to introduce and manage green care successfully.