The aim of this thesis is to investigate the spatial process of agricultural change and its structure in Chungnam province related to the process of industrialization and urbanization of Korea.
Especially this thesis focuses on the analysis of spatia...
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the spatial process of agricultural change and its structure in Chungnam province related to the process of industrialization and urbanization of Korea.
Especially this thesis focuses on the analysis of spatial process on the specialization and concentration of agricultural crops, spatial change in the combination of agricultural products and the regional structure of agricultural management.
For this purpose, this study examines the overall performance of agriculture in Chungnam province compared with that of the country. And then this study analyze the agricultural structure microscopically, dividing the study area into 181 administrative units (city, Eup and Myeon)
The results of this study are as follows.
1. The overall performance of agriculture of Chungnam province.
(1) The rate of increase in the cultivated area per each farmer was faster than the average rate of country due to the outmigration,
(2) The ramie of decrease in farming population was faster than that of farming households because of the selective migration of young people, which has Led to decline the quality and quantity of agricultural laborforce.
(3) farming system of agricultural products have been changed gradually from grain crops to cash crops (such as vegetables, fruits and special use crops) and from regional diversification to specialization. As a whole, Chungnam province had comparative advantages in commercial farming.
Spatial structure of specialization and concentration processes of agricultural products.
(1) Chungnam province has showed the tendency for agricultural specialization, especially fruits and special use crops.
crops
(2) Regional distribution of grain crops expect rice are tended to Localized pattern, while the pattern of regional distribution for commercial crops are ubiquitous due to the extention of cultivated area for commercial crops.
(3) vocational Share Analysis showed that the cultivated area of cash crops increased, while that of general crops decreased . The cash crop regions are concentrated on the northeastern parts of the axes connected from Sosan to Kumsan.
3. Spatial structure of agricultural product combinations.
(1) According to the result of Principle Component Analysis and Cluster-analysis, Chungnam province has experienced the gradual change in the spatial structure of agricultural product combination.
(2) During the 1960s, the combination of agricultural crops were different between southeastern area and northwestern area mainly due to the topographical differences.
(3) Since the early 1970s, the area which had a good accessibility to larger cities had grown cash products combining fruits, vegetables and animal stuffs. As a results, spatial structure of agricultural product combinations has been changed. Northeastern area performed commercial agriculture, while southwestern area grew more generalized and localized crops.
4. Regional structure based on the agrcultural management.
(1) During the 1960s, southeastern part of the axes linked
from Taechun to Chonan showed the high degree of agricultural intensity and commercialty. However during the period of 1970-1980, northeartern part of the axes linked from Sosan to Kumsan showed much higher degree of intensity and commercially because of the improvement of accessibility to Seoul and Daejon.
(2) According to the Factor Analysis, land use factor was extracted as the most important one in explaining the agricultural management in 1960 and 1970, while agricultural intensity factor was emerged the first factor in 1980.
(3) In the Light of the agricultural management, regional structure between the northern part and the southern part is very different. In the northern areas, agricultural activities are more extensive. On the other hand, agricultural activities in the southern area are more intensive. The basic factor for such difference between them is due to the topographic and laborforce factor.
(4) In order to analyze the interrelationship between regional structure of agricultural management and spatial structure of rural settlement, Canonical Correlation Analysis was used. According to the result of canonical analysis, the following relations are revealed.
a . The region with high degree of agriculturaization and with more aged farm population tends to be lowered the centrality of settlement.
b. The region with higher degree of agricultural intensity and with higher proportion of active population is likely to have higher centrality of settlement.
c. The region with higher rate of cultivated area and with lower accessibility tends to perform farming more extensively.
In short, this study revealed that cultivated and intensive agricultural activities formed a concentric ring of land use patterns centered on Daejon and Chonan cities, while self-supporting agricultural activities developed in southwestern area, reflecting topographic conditions.
Spatial structure of agricultural products combinations and regional structure of agricultural management in 1960s were delimited in to two parts along the axes linked from Chonan to Taechon. However in 1970 they were delimited along the axes connecting Sosan and Kumsan , which reflects urbanization process and the improvement of accessibility . Now agricultural region of Chungnam province may be viewed as a part of hinterland for Seoul metropolitan region.