South Korea lacks natural resources for agricultural production, encountering challenges such as climate change and an aging labor force. To address this challenge, we surveyed cropping systems in central-northern, central, and southern regions, identifying the top 10 crops from each. We then tested and selected suitable crops adaptable to regional climatic conditions based on the growing season and temperature requirements of each crop. The developed systems differed by region, with varied combinations. This observation implies that regional conditions related to crop productivity affect crop diversification. Among the developed systems, three combinations—potato-sorghum, potato-soybean, and sweet potato-onion—were stable and profitable in the central-northern, central, and southern regions, respectively. There were distinct variabilities in climate during the years 2020–2024 compared with the past (2015–2019). This shows that existing double-cropping systems are inadequately adaptive to regional differences in recent climatic variability. Market-related factors, such as crop price and profitability, were the major determinants of farmers’ decisions on crop production based on the analysis of existing and developed systems in all three regions. Overall, we confirmed that alternative systems are required in South Korea to respond to rapidly growing challenges and facilitate future studies for their implementation. Overall, our findings indicate that the development of alternative agricultural systems—adapted to evolving conditions such as climate change, mechanization, policy shifts, and market dynamics—is necessary in South Korea to effectively address rapidly emerging challenges and to support future research aimed at their implementation.
Park et al. (Mon,) studied this question.