Technological Changes in Agriculture and Information Technology: Centrality and Citation Analyses of South Korean Agricultural Patent Data

Abstract

This study analyses recent changes in the agricultural technology trends at the current pace of its convergence with information technology (IT) using South Korean agricultural patent data from 2000 to 2015. This article focuses on the structural changes in agricultural technology in terms of patent applications by specific technology sector between the two periods: Period 1 (2000–2007) and Period 2 (2008–2015). Accordingly, we performed centrality analysis to measure the importance of each agricultural technology based on International Patent Classification (IPC) sub-classes. We also conducted citation analysis to identify whether the proportion of backward and forward citations of agricultural patents had significantly changed between the two periods. The results of the centrality analysis suggest that, whereas food technology was the most important technology sector in agriculture during both the periods, agricultural production technology experienced a considerable increase in its share in agriculture in Period 2. The results of the citation analysis confirm a substantial degree of interconnectivity between agricultural technology and non-agricultural technologies.

Agricultural sustainability through smart farming systems: A comparative analysis between the Republic of Korea and Republic of Uganda

“…Smart farming interventions have been implemented by many countries including Republic of Uganda and Republic of Korea. Republic of Uganda is known of having good natural resources that contributes to agricultural systems (Hartter and Ryan 2010), while Republic of Korea is known of advanced technological system that enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of agricultural systems (Lim and Jung 2019), in addition, Republic of Uganda has an annual 3.4% population increase and is the second youngest country in the world (Mukwaya et al 2012) while Republic of Korea has an aging farming community (Lee et al 2021). Annual population increase and increasing percentage of young society in Republic of Uganda and aging farming community in Republic of Korea pose a food insecurity challenge in the respective countries.…”