In-Kyoung Hong’s research while affiliated with National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Sciences and other places

Background and objective: This study analyzed the economic value of horticulture-based Agro-healing (HBAH) programs and considered how they can achieve profitability, as basic research for their sustainable operation.Methods: The research target program is an HBAH program for depression reduction, targeting groups diagnosed with depression or at high-risk of depression from 19 to 65 years old. A survey was conducted with 95 individuals related to Agro-healing, and based on the survey results, an analysis was performed on the replaceable cost, market size, and profitability by considering the medical expenses of depression patients, the consumer spending items that can be replaced by the effects of therapeutic farming programs, the remuneration for Agro-healing specialists and auxiliary personnel, and the appropriate number of such personnel.Results: An analysis of the cost scale that HBAH programs can replace found that the replaceable cost could be about 2.8 trillion won. By combining the number of mental health institutions and care farms, and the number of eligible participants, it was found that assuming that six sessions run in a year, 256,400 people will participate at approximately 2,850 institutions and farms in 2028. , enabling the programs to run 17,100 sessions in 2028. Profitability should be ensured for the sustainable operation of Agro-healing programs. In this regard, it was confirmed that participation fees should range from a minimum of 31,211 won to a maximum of 45,346 won per session.Conclusion: This study is meaningful in that it performed a basic analysis of the economic value of individual Agro-healing programs and a profitability analysis for the sustainable operation of Agro-healing programs.

Background and objective: This study aimed to develop agro-healing program to enable the elderly to improve cognitive health, and to determine impacts on cognitive, emotional, and physical function through applying the program to seniors at welfare facilities.Methods: The agro-healing program was developed in consultation with experts on material selection, activity types, physical exercises, and evaluation methods. The program was conducted for seniors who used Jeonju Y Senior Welfare Center from May to August 2022. The total of 19 participants in the program were divided into 9 in the control group and 10 in the experimental group.A agro-healing program with 12 activities was given to the experimental group. As a pre- and post-test, the results of a cognitive screening test, short form of geriatric depression scale, and physical fitness test for the elderly were compared. For the experimental group, their activity preference was surveyed. The results were analyzed using SAS 9.4.Results: The agro-healing program to promote cognitive health did not show significant results in terms of differences in mean scores for cognitive, emotional, and physical area between the control and experimental groups in the pre- and post-test. However, through this study, it was found that the subjects preferred interesting activities with work stages using plants.Conclusion: A cognitive health promotion program for the elderly was developed and applied. Although the effectiveness of program was not proven, it is expected that activities preferred by the elderly can be used as basic data in agro-healing programs for the cognitive health of the elderly.

Background and objective: This study was conducted to identify the current status of domestic agricultural business operations related to the design and business model of care farms in order to manage quality for the certification of excellent Agro-Healing Facilities (AHFs) that meet the needs of the times given the increasing demand for agro-healing.Methods: An online survey was conducted of 170 agro-healing business entities nationwide, and the collected data were frequency-coded using SPSS Ver. 25. Chi-square was conducted for frequency analysis and significance was tested by one-way ANOVA.Results: For the type of business, individual businesses were the most common (118 businesses), and for the total sales of the business, 30 million won to less than 100 million won was the most common (57 businesses. For the total number of employees, businesses with 2 workers were the largest group (35.9%). In terms of the qualification standards for the CEOs and employees of care farms, 152 employees (89.4%) had completed education in agro-healing. In terms of the land use status of care farms, 141 individual businesses (82.9%) owned lands, and the average land area was 123,626.05 ㎡ for farmland, 178,195.98 ㎡ for land, and 62,511.51 ㎡ for plant cultivation area. The most frequently planted plant was sweet potatoes, and the least planted was plum. For functional plants mainly used in the programs, vegetables were the most common, followed by flowers, fruit trees and landscaping plants, special and food crops, and herbs. A non-parametric χ² test of all items was statistically significant ( p < .001).Conclusion: The AHF certification scheme, which will be implemented from the end of June 2024, will select excellent facilities from among existing AHFs to provide correct information to the public and lay a foundation that will support the spread of sustainable agro-healing. It is expected that this study will provide useful basic data for establishing care farm business models and seeking future direction for care farms.

Background and objective: This study was conducted to understand the current status and performance factors of domestic agricultural management in order to develop a business model that meets the needs of the times along with the newly emerging demand for agro-healingMethods: An online survey was conducted on 170 care farming business entities nationwide, and the collected data were frequency-coded using SPSS Ver.25. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to extract performance factors, and a reliability analysis was performed to verify internal consistency for each factor.Results: The factors that determine the performance of care farms, such as sales and profits, were classified into seven performance determinants (X1 to X7). Factor 1 was classified as one factor by grouping X2(excellence in use of animals/ plants), X6 (program excellence), X5(quality of facility), and X3 (size of facility) together, and Factor 2 was classified as one factor by grouping two items, X7 (governmental support) and X1(location) together, showing high internal consistency between all Cronbach’s α. The correlation between the factors determining care farm performance did not have statistically significant results between X7 (governmental support), X2 (excellence in use of animals/ plants), and X6 (excellence in program), but overall, there was a correlation between items that was statistically significant. A regression analysis was conducted to determine the variables affecting the performance factors of care farms, and at the 95% confidence level, both the location and sales of care farms were statistically significant.Conclusion: Care farms that provide care farming services were often operated on a small scale because they didn’t have a sufficient base of profit, with the exception of farms operated in connection with former rural education farms. In the future, it is considered for care farms necessary to utilize factors of regional differentiation, such as the locational environment and the characteristics of the region, or to link with multiple targets and institutions in the region.

In the state-of-the-art agricultural technology using greenhouses, it is useful to estimate a dynamic model of internal environmental changes according to external environmental changes. In this article, we propose a method to predict the change in the daily light integral inside the greenhouse according to the change in the daily light integral outside the greenhouse. Since daily light integral corresponds to the integral value of photosynthetic photon flux density, it is necessary to obtain a model of change in photosynthetic photon flux density inside the greenhouse according to the change in photosynthetic photon flux density outside the greenhouse to improve the prediction accuracy. The greenhouse was considered a nonlinear first-order system with a time lag for the photosynthetic photon flux density, and the system parameters were identified using the recursive least-squares method. Here, the photosynthetic photon flux density data measured outside the greenhouse is used as the input to the system, and the photosynthetic photon flux density data measured inside the greenhouse is used as the output of the system. Next, we obtain the daily light integral prediction model. The daily light integral prediction model is estimated from the photosynthetic photon flux density model using the finite difference method. The performance of the proposed method has been evaluated through extensive experimental studies. In Korea, since the weather changes in summer and winter are great, it must compare the daily light integral prediction performance in summer and winter to more accurately verify the proposed method. In this study, the experimental results are presented, respectively, for summer in August 2021 and winter in January 2022. The error performance of the human empirical prediction method and the proposed data-driven prediction method are compared for two seasons, and the robustness of the rapid weather changes of the proposed method is discussed.

Background and objective: This study was conducted to determine the types of pests that occur in spring and autumn on three types of cruciferous vegetables, which are host plants, and investigate the actual effect by selecting companion plants with pest control effects.Methods: This study selected 3 types of cruciferous crops and 17 types of companion plants through literature review to investigate the types of pests and damage index occurring in spring and autumn. After examining the number of pests that occur per 10 plants on a weekly basis, the mean and standard deviation were calculated using the IBM SPSS statistics Ver. 25 program.Results: There was little damage to pests in 17 types of herbs, flowers, and vegetables. When grown together with cruciferous vegetables, 8 types of herbs, 5 types of vegetables, and 4 types of flowers showed little pest damage. In particular, companion plants that suffered less pest damage were catnip, chamomile, thyme, and nasturtium in spring cultivation and thyme, basil, catnip, chamomile, rosemary, and marigold in autumn cultivation. Shoot growth of Kimchi cabbage and white radish in the experimental group planted with vegetables was 148-181% of the control group using conventional cultivation but companion planting with rosemary, nasturtium, and marigold showed less growth than the control group, especially the experimental group planted with rosemary, which showed 45-53% of growth compared to the control group. The companion plants with good growth in the root of white radish were celery, beet, basil, and marigold. There was little difference in the degree of pest damage to crops between the central planting with a few companion crops and the parallel, alternate, and perimeter planting with many companion crops.Conclusion: Pests can be managed effectively with a pest management technique that utilizes the pull effect based on the interaction between frequently occurring pest types and companion plants.

Background and objective: This study was conducted to identify various factors of plant spacing for the growth and fruit quality of cherry tomatoes and to contribute to urban agriculture by improving quality and providing appropriate fertilization methods.Methods: French marigold ( Tagetes patula , T), zinnia ( Zinnia elegans , Z), spearmint ( Mentha spicata , M), and basil ( Ocimum basilicum , O), which have a combination effect with cherry tomatoes ( Lycopersicon esculentum ), were selected and tested by applying 10, 20, and 40 cm of plant spacing. Cherry tomatoes were planted in the middle of the furrow without companion plants, repeated three times for each experimental section. The growth survey included plant height, stem thickness, total number of fruits per plant, total fresh weight of fruits, fruit hardness, sugar content, and vitamin C. The inorganic constituents of plants were divided into roots, stems, and leaves.Results: There were statistical differences in stem thickness and total number of fruits per plant. However, there were no statistical differences in plant height, total fresh weight of fruits, sugar content, fruit hardness, and vitamin C. Stem thickness was lower in M20, M40, O20, and O40 compared to the control group. The total number of fruits per plant was higher than the control group in only Z40. The inorganic constituents of cherry tomatoes showed statistical significance. After the experiment, the highest sodium content was found in Z40.Conclusion: This study was conducted to provide convenience in soil and crop management by analyzing various factors to find out the effect of companion plants and plant spacing on the growth and fruit quality of cherry tomatoes. As a result, the most effective way to improve growth and quality of cherry tomatoes is to plant them with zinnia within 40 cm of plant spacing.

Background and objective: This study intends to assess the socio-economic monetary value of school garden education services by converting them into market values using assessment indicators for school gardens, which are spaces for students to engage in various experiences and urban agricultural activities.Methods: We identified the characteristics and current status of urban school gardens through literature review, collected opinions from a total of two rounds of expert advice, determined willingness to pay (WTP) and the importance of detailed values based on the parent survey, estimated the monetary value of each detailed value using the contingent valuation method (CVM) of WTP, and estimated three economic values.Results: The total amount of educational, health, welfare, and environmental values provided by school garden education for participating students was estimated to range from a minimum of 193.1 billion won to a maximum of 978.4 billion won. The total amount of economic value provided to farm households, related industries and the economically active population was estimated to be 476.1 billion won. The job creation effect was the highest at 266.2 billion won, followed by the industrial ripple effect (157.3 billion won) and the farm household income increase effect (52.6 billion won). The evolution of school gardens is expected to reduce problems in urban areas such as environmental issues, promote community spirit through agriculture, and produce industrial ripple effects such as an increase in farm household income and job creation, raising the need to maintain multiple functions of school gardens. The total socio-economic value of school garden education seemed to range from 669.2 billion won to 1.4545 trillion won based on the operating fund, government budget, and value-added tax (VAT) of 2020.Conclusion: The results of this study can be used as basic data to assess the overall value of agricultural experience services in school garden education.

Background and objective: This study was conducted on the value and operation of school garden education. It will be presented as basic data in considering the necessity of a policy for revitalizing school gardens and financial support, and can be used to find ways to facilitate education through school gardens.Methods: The collected data were analyzed using the x2 test to obtain the frequency and weight of each measurement item, and the importance of each value was calculated by giving it a relative weight and directly evaluated so that the sum of importance was 100%.Results: In terms of the effectiveness of each value indicator of school gardens, parents of children who had experienced school gardens perceived them as having educational value (4.35 points) and parents of children who had not experienced school gardens perceived them as having health value (4.38 points). The average amount parents were willingness to pay voluntarily as a fee for school garden programs was 5,889 won and the highest amount was 30,000 won, and the average amount of government budget support parents saw as appropriate was 6,705 won and the highest was 100,000 won. Regarding the appropriate rate of education tax increase from the current rate of 30% the maximum percentage acceptable was 0.531-0.545%. Both parents of elementary and middle school students answered that educational value is the most important of the specific values of school garden service. Regarding the necessity of expanding school garden education, 89.8% of parents answered that the trend of increasing school garden education is appropriate, 93.2% answered that they were willing to have their children participate in school garden education in the future, and 81.2% answered that they would like to participate in school garden education in the future.Conclusion: The creation and utilization of school gardens is expected to continue to increase due to the diverse values and social atmospheres of school gardens, and this study provides policy data to vitalize school garden education in the future.

Apartment housing has become a dominant form of urban residence. High dwelling density in apartment complexes causes frequent conflicts and disputes. To counter this, it is necessary to promote a sense of community among residents with programs such as a customized horticultural program for the introduction of a community garden in an apartment complex. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of a community garden program in an apartment complex in fostering residents’ sense of community and reducing stress. Experiments were performed in three groups: a group participating in the program based on the sense of community theory (SCG; n = 11), a group participating with a focus on horticultural education (HEG; n = 11), and a non-participation group (NPG; n = 10). The experimental results revealed that the sense of community was significantly higher in the SCG than in the HEG and NPG. The results suggest that the SCG positively affected the sense of community, overall energy, ratio between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, and stress resistance. Considering these results, community garden programs with appropriate interventions to promote a sense of community are more effective in improving community life and reducing stress than programs based on horticultural education.