Analysis of 2010s Research Trends in Research on Agro-Healing in South Korea

Abstract

Background and objective: Agro-healing is crucial with urban farming in the domestic. It is beyond the conventional agriculture. This study was carried out to assess the 2010s researches on domestic agro-healing and predict the future direction of agro-healing development. Methods: Among the articles published from 2010 to 2018, we collected some articles by searching keywords including agro-healing, garden activity, gardening, horticultural activity, horticultural program, horticultural therapy, plant effect, plant environment, plant growing program, plant impact, social gardening, urban agriculture and vegetable garden activity, selected 83 articles that were evaluated in advance, and analyzed by frequency analysis, t-test, and one-way ANOVA with SPSS 20.0. Results: Agro-healing journal articles were published the most in 2010, and have declined since then. In the classification according to the academic society, most of the journal articles were published by the Society for People, Plants, and Environment. The main targets of domestic agro-healing related to activities and programs were preschoolers, children and adolescents, accounting for 52.4% of the total. By the characteristics of the subjects, agro-healing programs and studies were conducted with special participants who needed special care compared to the general participants. The dependent variables were classified into six areas according to their attributes and the share of psychological and emotional areas was highest (42.6%) among them. In terms of the composition of the program, the share of those with 9-12 sessions was highest (36.7%) and the share of those with more than 20 participants was also highest (39.8%). Conclusion: It is recommended to operate agro-healing programs or industries focusing on the socially disadvantaged including those who have special needs or the underprivileged, but in order to create income for farms and expand the demand for agro-healing, it will be necessary to spread the perception that anyone without any physical or emotional issue can be the targets of and experience agro-healing. To meet the different needs of targets of agro-healing, it will be necessary to conduct objective and practical studies on broader areas and in the process the healing functions of agriculture and the strength of agro-healing needs to be further highlighted.

A Study on Priority of Classification System for Agro-healing Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process

“…When examining the above analysis findings, which were grouped based on sub-criteria per main criterion, all three items (community service, which featured the highest complex weight; social rehabilitation, which ranked 2nd; and treatment and rehabilitation, which ranked 3rd) fell within "agro-healing service industry" as the main criterion. Jeong et al (2020) reported that anyone can become a target of agro-healing, even if they do not have specific physical or emotional problems, and that there should be widespread awareness that anyone can experience agro-healing activities. This is in line with the fact that community serv-ice showed the highest complex weight among the 11 sub-criteria.…”

Relationship Satisfaction and Emotional Change between Parents and Children through the Agro-Healing Program

“…Agro-healing, which refers to agricultural activities using farm landscapes and resources to improve physical and mental health of people today, is actively studied in terms of application in Korea, led by the Rural Development Administration (Kim, 2019). Jeong et al (2020) examined the different effects of agro-healing and discovered that agro-healing had active therapeutic effects on psychological and emotional variables such as stress, depression, and self-esteem regardless of age. Moreover, doing various five-senses activities in wide and unstandardized spaces such as care farms had better effect on reducing children's daily stress than small and standardized spaces, thereby helping their emotional development (Kim and Koo, 2019).…”