A Study on the Development of Standard Diagnostic Table for Oak Mushroom Management and its Applicability

This study aims to develop a standard diagnostic table for management and administration that oak mushroom cultivators of forestry households can utilize. By diagnosing their current level of management with the table, the cultivators themselves will be able to grasp and address their operational challenges better. The table is composed of; questions on the status of forestry households; columns for a series of management performance indices, and; questionnaire with 4 categories and 20 subcategories to check the current level of management and administration by the households. In order to prepare the standard diagnostic table for oak mushroom management, 196 forestry households throughout 10 areas - Cheong-yang, Gong-ju, Bu-yeo and Seocheon in Chungcheongnam-do, Mun-kyung and Ye-cheon in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Jin-an in Jeollabuk-do, Jangheung and Jang-seong in Jeollanam-do, and Jeju Islands - were interviewed with and a total of 190 questionnaires were acquired and made use of in the result analysis. Then, the score on management level of each forestry household was determined in the way of aggregating scores from each subcategory. The overall average score of every household was calculated at 62.2 point with more than half of the respondents, 54.7%, belonging to the range of 60 to 80. When considered by regional groups, the average score of Jin-an was the lowest with 57.6 point while that of Jang-seong was the highest with 69.6 point. In case of the 'cultivation management' category, there were a lot of cultivators who expressed a negative awareness of the term 'pest control' because they had a tendency to think the term in connection with 'herbicides or pesticides'. So it is inevitable to adapt and modify existing groups and grades to make sure that the cultivators can make a right choice without confusing the concept 'pest control' with 'herbicides or pesticides'. Meanwhile, the average scores of 'management and administration' categories were mostly low. It was remarkable in these categories that forestry households in Jeolla province, which had remained in lower ranks in the other three categories, recorded higher scores than those in Chungcheong province, boasting a relatively high level of management and administration.