• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.841-854
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• 2014

This study aimed to analyze the selection criteria and priority settings for solid culture medium used in hydroponic crop production in farm households. Expert brain storming was carried out to extract solid culture medium selection criteria for hydroponic farming. As a result, 3 criteria of economy (cost), productivity, and environment, and 9 factors were extracted. A questionnaire survey of hydroponic farm households was conducted in Gyeonggi, Gangwon, and Chooncheong provinces. AHP analysis of the hydroponic solid culture medium selection criteria identified productivity as the most important criterion, chosen by 58.7% of the respondents, followed by economy (28.4%) and environment (12.9%). The 9 factors were rated by the respondents in the following decreasing order of importance: 1, crop yield (28.3%); 2, pest occurrence (18.5%); 3, maintenance/management costs (12.0%); 4, convenience of maintenance/management (13.4%); 5, initial investment cost (11.6%); 6, material energy consumption (6.5%); 7, waste recyclability (4.0%); 8, waste disposal costs (3.4%); and 9 environmental emissions (1.81%). These results imply that hydroponic farm households consider cultivation-related quality factors more important than economic factors, such as price of culture medium or installation cost.