A study on farmhouses cultivating and producing edible shoots of fatsia in Korea centering centering on Gapyeong-gun and Yeoncheon-gun in Gyeonggi-do and Gokseong-gun in Jeollanam-do

The edible shoots of fatsia (Aralia elata Seem) are popular as high-end wild edible greens, and are recommended as a major income crop for farming villages and mountain villages in Korea. The demand for fatsia shoots is increase, along with increases in the national income. Because they require less work than other crops, and because farmers can make profits in a short period of time using the off season, some local self-governments are expanding their support for fatsia shoot cultivation. However, it involves many issues, such as the decrease of the price of fatsia shoots, the increase of imported rootstocks, difficulties in finding markets, and the weakening of manpower in farming and mountain villages. Domestic studies relating to fatsia shoot cultivating households only went so far as to examine the cultivation methods and provided quite fragmentary case studies. Therefore, this study examined the production, sales, and distribution structure of fatsia shoots with fatsia shoot producing households in Gapyeong-gun and Yeoncheon-gun in Gyeonggi-do, and Gokseong-gun in Jeollanam-do to determine ways for farm households to increase their income with fatsia shoots. As a result, Gapyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do was found to require the cultivation of domestic rootstocks on a large scale in order to replace rootstocks imported from China, and to improve the distribution structure by securing a number of markets. Yeoncheon-gun was found to desperately need to secure various markets to handle the increases of production in the future, and Gokseong-gun, Jeollanam-do required a fatsia shoot cultivation and production structure centering on the households with small cultivated land, occupied in large number by people in their 50s and 60s, with a low possibility of losing manpower to other industries.