Research Reports
A Basic Study for Environmentally Friendly Reorganization of Highland Agriculture
-
AuthorSin, Youngkwang
-
Publication Date2005.12.01
-
Original
Highland agriculture, which supplies fresh vegetables to consumers in summer, plays an important role as a potential food production source amid the rapidly progressing global warming. However, in order to increase the acreage of highland agriculture, farmers need to cultivate on steep mountainous areas. This could cause soil erosion, but the lack of the methods to prevent soil erosion could cause environmental problems including nutrient (such as nitrogen and phosphorus) runoffs to rivers. Soil erosion decreases agricultural productivity and becomes an important cause of "non-point source pollution" in downstream rivers. Recently, the increased volume of the imported fresh vegetables has a negative effect not only on the profitability of highland agriculture, but also on the farming operation through the request to highland agriculture for improving environmental loading.
The purposes of this study are to investigate the status of environmental loading and farming management of highland agriculture and to suggest the directions to reorganize environmentally friendly highland agriculture.
The structure of this study can be summarized as follows:
In Chapter 1, problem statement, study objectives, and previous literature review are briefly discussed. Chapter 2 outlines current features of highland agriculture using the SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis and discusses circumstance changes including farming income reduction and related policy programs. Chapter 3 assesses the environmental loading of highland agriculture and presents the best management practices for soil loss control. Chapter 4 suggests directions for environmentally friendly reorganization of highland agriculture and future tasks. Finally, Chapter 5 makes a brief summary and draws to a conclusion.
The results of the study show that highland agriculture needs to be reshaped in consideration of both agricultural production and environmental preservation. Thus, it is required to analyze the environmental effects of highland agriculture and formulate a model for environmental loading assessment. After that, the study needs to consider the synthetic and systematic reorganization methods for sustainable highland agriculture through supplementary facilities, substitute crops, and farming practice change. In addition, programs for sustainable highland agriculture, which is socially, technically, and economically acceptable, should be developed based on the estimation of costs and benefits using a new agri-environmental measure.
Finally, in order to proceed with environmentally friendly restructuring of highland agriculture, further studies should be carried out to develop policy mixes composed of environmental regulations and economic incentives. Detailed action programs should be prepared, and relevant entities should share the responsibility.
Researchers: Shin Yong-Kwang, Kim Chang-Gil, Kim Tae-Young, Joo Jin-Ho
E-mail address: ykshin22@krei.re.kr
- Next
- An Analysis of Vertical Coordination in Agri-business
- Prev
- The Decentralization Process of Rural Policy in England