Conventional, Partially Converted and Environmentally Friendly Farming in South Korea: Profitability and Factors Affecting Farmers’ Choice

Saem Lee, Trung Thanh Nguyen, Patrick Poppenborg, Hio-Jung Shin and Thomas Koellner
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Saem Lee: Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geosciences, University of Bayreuth, BayCEER, Bayreuth 95440, Germany
Patrick Poppenborg: Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geosciences, University of Bayreuth, BayCEER, Bayreuth 95440, Germany
Hio-Jung Shin: Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Kangwon National University, 1 Kangwondaehak-gil, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do 24341, Republic of Korea
Thomas Koellner: Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geosciences, University of Bayreuth, BayCEER, Bayreuth 95440, Germany

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 8, 1-18

Abstract: While organic farming is well established in Europe a nd USA, it is still catching up in Asian countries. The government of South Korea has implemented environmentally friendly farming that encompasses organic farming. Despite the promotion of environmentally friendly farming, it still has a low share in South Korea and partially converted farming has emerged in some districts of South Korea. However, the partially converted farming has not yet been investigated by the government. Thus, our study implemented a financial analysis to compare the annual costs and net returns of conventional, partially converted and environmentally friendly farming in Gangwon Province. The result showed that environmentally friendly farming was more profitable with respect to farm net returns. To find out the factors affecting the adoption of environmentally friendly farming, multinomial logistic regression was implemented. The findings revealed that education and subsidy positively and significantly influenced the probability of farmers’ choice on partially converted and environmentally friendly farming. Farm size had a negative and significant relationship with only environmentally friendly farming. This study will contribute to future policy establishment for sustainable agriculture as recommended by improving the quality of fertilizers, suggesting the additional investigation associated with partially converted farmers.

Keywords: environmentally friendly farming; partial conversion; economic benefits; decision-making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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