Factors Affecting on the Returning to Farming: Focused on the Moderating Effects of Mentoring
Authors:   Asia-Europe Perspective Association, Kim Bong-Shik , Ha Kyu-Soo 
Published: December 2024

In this study, the impact of personal competence, motivation for returning to farming, and government funding on the intention of returning to farming was reflected in the moderating effect. Since the late 60s, the rapid industrialization and urbanization have led to the aging of rural areas and hollowing out of villages, causing the rural living base to collapse. In the past five years, 280,000 people have fallen and the population has decreased due to the rapid aging of farming and fishing villages, the purpose of which is to analyze the effect of regulating return to farming. For this study, a survey of urbanites aged 30 and older who intended to return to farming was conducted, and 262 valid questionnaires were finally collected.
Looking at the characteristics of the survey sample, 68.7% of men were more than 31.3% of women, and the average age was 49. Office workers, including civil servants, accounted for the largest number of jobs with 66.4. The survey showed 21.8% of unmarried people and 78.2% of married people, with 65.3% of college graduates or younger, 14.1% of high school graduates, 13.7% of graduate students, and 6.9% of college graduates. The average annual income of this study sample was 40.6 million won, with an average of 18 years of work experience. For this study, the statistical program used Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 23.0, and first, the analysis of frequency was conducted to determine the characteristics of the samples. Second, factor analysis and Cronbach’s α coefficients were used to verify the feasibility and reliability of the measurement tool.
We also conduct Correlation Analysis for the relevance of related variables. Third, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used in the research hypothesis verification process to analyze the impact of personal competence, farming motivation, and government funding on farming intentions and the regulatory effect of farming mentoring.
The collected data performed hierarchical multiple regression analysis, and the effect of regulating mentoring in this study was verified through hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The results of the analysis showed that economic benefits, physical capacity, and farming experience had a significant (+) effect on the intention of returning to farming. In the case of gender, men were more likely to return to farming than women, and the higher the economic benefits of returning to farming, the higher the physical capacity, and the more farming experience, the higher the intention to return to farming. As a result of adding home farming mentoring, which is a controlling variable, it was found that gender, economic benefits, physical competence, and farming experience had a significant (+) effect on home farming intentions. Career experience has been shown to have a significant negative effect on the intention of returning to farming. The regulating variable, return-to-farm mentoring, has been shown to have a significant (+) effect on return-to-farm intention. As a result of verifying the regulatory variables in this study, the interactions of eco-friendly life*return to farming mentoring and government funding* return to farming mentoring were identified as net regulatory variables. Economic benefits*Returning to farming was identified as a pseudo-regulatory variable because both interaction terms and variables were significant. Furthermore, the regulatory effectiveness verification results were significant at all stages. These results confirm the regulatory effectiveness of return farming mentoring.
The results of this study have several implications, and first, the smaller the career experience, the more likely it is to return to farming, which is a synergy effect caused by the combination of the mindset of new-generation prospective farmers to take capital gains.