The Analytical Studies of Organic Farming in Korea

The organic farming has recently been introduced into Korea by the mass media mainly through news papers, TV, and the farmers who are interested in the organic farming abroad. The organic farmers wish to avoid the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides that demage soil and create toxic effects in the wild life and human body. They are also very much concerned about the adding humus and other organic matters to soil in order to improve fertility, energy conservation, and proper nutrition. The organic farming has been costly conducted in Korea in the workshop of Korea Association of Agricultural Specialists. With the ecological studies, we have learned that there are much differences of the divergence, number of species appearance among perennial and annual herbs, species population fluctuation, and entrophication between the organic and conventional farming. In conventional farming, we found that the mercury and cadmium in the soil of An Yang River area are over 0.2ppm and 2ppm respectively, and the cadmium in the rice over 1ppm, although the heavy metal contents in the irrigation water of rice fields are below the control limit of Korean Government. Even in the organic farming, the cadmium contents in the soil of the sea side are over 1ppm. This shows the cadmium are widely distributed through this country. With the advent of the energy crisis, farmers have been facing at present the shortage of fertilizers and pesticides that require petroleum as a source of both the raw materials and the heat in the process of the manufacture. The organic which the present world has to confront.