Evaluation of the suitability of potato cultivation areas in South Korea based on climate and soil conditions.

BACKGROUND: Changes in dietary patterns have led to a decrease in rice consumption, raising demands for the cultivation of alternative crops that meet the current requirements. Potatoes are highly productive and can be stored for a relatively long period, thereby ensuring adequate income for farmers; however, optimal cultivation is necessary to maximize yield. OBJECTIVE: This study proposes optimal cultivation regions for potato considering climate and soil conditions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The CLIMEX model was developed to evaluate climatic suitability, while the soil suitability was scored based on five soil characteristics. The final areal suitability for potato cultivation was classified into 4 levels: very suitable, suitable, marginal, and unsuitable. RESULTS: Overall, 36.5% of South Korea had very suitable climate, but areas with the best values for soil conditions were approximately 10% of the climatically suitable areas. When considering the climate and soil conditions simultaneously, climatic suitability and soil condition were inversely related, resulting in only 1.2% of optimal areas with Jeju Island as the most suitable area. CONCLUSIONS: Because both climate and soil conditions need to be suitable for growing crops, this study can provide potential paddy-cultivation areas for potato cultivation and a method for evaluating suitable areas for crop cultivation.

Discrimination study between carcass yield and meat quality by gender in Korean native cattle (Hanwoo).

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify a distribution pattern of meat quality grade (MQG) as a function of carcass yield index (CYI) and the gender of Hanwoo (bull, cow, and steer) to determine the optimum point between both yield and quality. We also attempted to identify how pre- and post-deboning variables affect the gender-specific beef quality of Hanwoo. METHODS: A total of 31 deboning variables, consisting of 7 pre-deboning and 24 post-deboning variables from bulls (n = 139), cows (n = 69), and steers (n = 153), were obtained from the National Institute of Animal Science (NIAS) in South Korea. The database was reconstructed to be suitable for a statistical significance test between the CYI and the MQG as well as classification of meat quality. Discriminant function analysis was used for classifying MQG using the deboning parameters of Hanwoo by gender. RESULTS: The means of CYI according to 1+, 1, 2, and 3 of MQG were 68.64±2.02, 68.85±1.94, 68.62±5.88, and 70.99±3.32, respectively. High carcass yield correlated with low-quality grade, while high-quality meat most frequently was obtained from steers. The classification ability of pre-deboning parameters was higher than that of post-deboning parameters. Moisture and the shear force were the common significant parameters in all discriminant functions having a classification accuracy of 80.6%, 71%, and 56.9% for the bull, cow, and steer, respectively. CONCLUSION: This study provides basic information for predicting the meat quality by gender using pre-deboning variables consistent with the actual grading index.

Statistical modeling for estimating glucosinolate content in Chinese cabbage by growth conditions.

BACKGROUND: Glucosinolate in Chinese cabbage (Brassica campestris L. ssp. pekinensis (Lour.) Rupr) has potential benefits for human health, and its content is affected by growth conditions. In this study, we used a statistical model to identify the relationship between glucosinolate content and growth conditions, and to predict glucosinolate content in Chinese cabbage. RESULT: Multiple regression analysis was employed to develop the model's growth condition parameters of growing period, temperature, humidity and glucosinolate content measured in Chinese cabbage grown in a plant factory. The developed model was represented by a second-order multi-polynomial equation with two independent parameters: growth duration and temperature (adjusted R2 = 0.81), and accurately predicted glucosinolate content after 14 days of seeding. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this study presents the first statistical model for evaluating glucosinolate content, suggesting a useful methodology for designing glucosinolate-related experiments, and optimizing glucosinolate content in Chinese cabbage cultivation. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Multivariate classification of the geographic origin of Chinese cabbage using an electronic nose-mass spectrometry.

An electronic nose-mass spectrometry (EN-MS) that profiles volatile compounds is a candidate device for identifying the geographic origin of cultivation of agricultural products when an adequate algorithm is derived. The objectives of this study were to apply two types of multivariate analysis, discriminant function analysis (DFA) and principal component analysis (PCA), to the volatile compounds detected by an EN-MS for the geographic classification of Chinese cabbage cultivated in Korea (42 samples) or in China (29 samples). DFA showed that Chinese cabbage from Korea were completely separable from those originating in China with 12 volatile compounds among the 151 detected. PCA revealed that Chinese cabbage data fell into two completely separable origins of Korea and China. This is the first study involving EN-MS data of volatile compounds with multivariate statistics to discriminate the geographical origin of Chinese cabbage, with further applications for other agricultural products.