Agriculture in South Korea

Agriculture in South Korea is a sector of the economy of South Korea. Korean agriculture is the basic industry of the Korean economy, consisting of farming, animal husbandry, forestry and fishing. At the time of its founding, Korea was a typical agricultural country, with more than 80% of the population engaged in agricultural production. After land reform under the Lee Seung-man administration, economic revitalization under the Park Chung-hee military government and the wave of world trade liberalization that began in the 1980s, Korean agriculture has undergone dramatic changes. Through the Green Revolution, Korea became self-sufficient in rice, the staple food, in 1978, and in 1996, Korea became the first Asian country after Japan to mechanize its agriculture with fine-grained cultivation. The development of Korean agriculture has also led to the development of agriculture-related industries such as fertilizer, agricultural machinery and seed.

The natural resources required for agriculture in South Korea are not abundant. Two thirds of the country are mountain and hill. Arable land only accounts for 22 percent of the country's land. It is one of the countries with the least arable land per capita in the world. Korea has a very low self-sufficiency rate for agricultural products, except for rice and potatoes, which are largely self-sufficient, while 85% of other foodstuffs need to be imported. In addition, Korea imports more than 60% of its beef, fish and shellfish, 20% of its fruit, poultry and milk from abroad, and only sugar and eggs are self-sufficient. Since the 1980s, with the restructuring of Korean agriculture, the area of food crops has tended to decrease, while the area of high value-added crops, vegetables and fruits has increased in proportion to the plantation industry. The most important crop in South Korea is rice, accounting for about 90 percent of the country's total grain production and over 40 percent of farm income. Other grain products heavily rely on imports from other countries. Farms range in size from small, family-owned farms to large corporations, but most are small-scale and rely heavily on government support and services in order to survive.

In the 1960s, Korea's economy began to grow at a rapid pace, creating the "Han River Miracle". In 2005, the share of agriculture in Korea's GDP fell to 2.9 percent from 50 percent at the start of the country's history. With urbanization and industrialization, Korea's agricultural population has been lost and is ageing, with the proportion of people employed in agriculture falling from 50% to 8.5% between 1970 and 2000, and to 7% in 2008.

History

With the rapid growth of South Korea's economy and urbanization, areas of farmland have been decreasing and rural populations have moved from the countryside to cities. In addition to the decrease in farmland, there has been a decrease in rice demand due to the declining rates of rice consumption. In 1980, the average consumption of rice per capita was 137.7 kg. In 2018, only 61 kg of rice was eaten per capita. This decrease is partially due to the rising of wheat consumption of consumers. In 2016, the average South Korean consumed 33.2 kg of wheat flour.

National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) is South Korea's Agricultural cooperative, which is a nationwide organization in charge of agriculture banking, supply of agriculture input factors and sales of agriculture products. The NACF was founded in 1961 with the goal of "improving the economic, social, cultural and status of agriculture people and enhancing the competitiveness of agriculture to improve the quality of life of farmers and contribute to the balanced development of the national economy.

In November of 2011, the government passed the Act on Development and Support of Urban Agriculture (Act of UA). It was based upon the National Land Planning and Utilization Act which strives to create more farmland. The goal of the Act of UA was to "develop a nature-friendly urban environment and contribute to the harmonious development of cities and rural communities by raising urban residents' understanding in agriculture". Seoul, South Korea's capital and largest, densest city, developed four categories of UA: "housing" which includes private homes and apartments, both indoors and outdoors; "in-city" which is the rooftops of public buildings; "farm-park" which uses abandoned land; and "education" which includes schools and colleges. To promote the idea of urban agriculture, the municipal government of Seoul offered agricultural training classes and supplies such as seeds, tools, and containers to interested residents. By 2015, the municipal government had assisted in the development of "vegetable gardens on the rooftops of 267 buildings" and had provided "43,785 box-typed vegetable pots for 15,866 places".

Due to challenges with an aging population of farmers, a shrinking number of farm laborers, the weakening of the Korea domestic farm market, and uncommon weather patterns, the government of South Korea has been promoting the idea of smart farms to farmers. By offering financial and training support, the government is hoping to "bolster the competitiveness of domestic agriculture". These smart farms use information and communication technologies (ICT) to send real time information to mobile devices to farmers. Though the government has promoted smart farms, only a small percentage of farms has begun using the ICT. Most farmers are poor and do not have the finances to invest in technology. Also, most small farmers do not have the technological skills to change over to a "digital environment". In 2019, the agricultural ministry announced that 248 billion won would be budgeted for promoting smart farm technology.

Historical development

During the Paleolithic period, economic activities such as hunting and gathering have already occurred on the Korean Peninsula. Primitive grain grinding stones and various types of picks excavated from the neolithic remains at Watpo-ri, Rojin Pioneer City, North Hamgyong Province, indicate that primitive agricultural cultivation began on the Korean Peninsula during the Neolithic period primitive agricultural planting began on the Korean peninsula. However, due to low productivity and low agricultural production, agricultural planting began on the Korean peninsula. However, due to low productivity and low agricultural production, hunting and gathering were still the main production methods in the Neolithic Period. Entering the Bronze Age, with the production of exquisite bronze agricultural tools, the productivity of agricultural planting was greatly improved, and the planting industry began to replace hunting and gathering as the center of production. At the beginning of the Iron Age, irrigated plow farming methods began to appear, and productivity was further improved. During the Joseon Dynasty, agriculture has developed to a very advanced level. According to the Geography Records of Sejong, the agricultural early field in the early Joseon Dynasty had an absolute advantage, and the estimated ratio of water early field in Gyeonggi Province and other areas was 28% to 72%. According to the oldest agricultural book in South Korea, "Nongsa jikseol", in the 15th century, the most extensive agricultural cultivation in South Korea was yellow rice, millet, soybeans and rice, followed by crops such as wheat and ginseng. In the middle of the sixteenth century, the transplanting method gradually became a common method of paddy field cultivation. In the 18th century, the transplanting method was not only extended to Tianshui paddy fields (rice fields that can only be irrigated by rain), but also used in paddy and dry land agriculture. The original direct seeding method of rice has also been greatly developed.

Resource structure

Farmland

In 2022, South Korea’s agricultural land area was 1.698 million hectares, accounting for 17% of South Korea’s land area, of which two-thirds of the arable land was paddy fields, mainly for the cultivation of rice. In 2011, the area of rice fields in South Korea was approximately 854,000 hectares, accounting for 50.3% of the cultivated land area. With the development of urbanization and industrialization, Korea's self-sufficiency rate in food is decreasing due to the continuous decline of arable land.

In 1949, South Korea promulgated the "Agricultural Land Reform Law." The government purchases land from landlords through agricultural land reform, and then allocates 3 hectares of land to each farmer, so that "the cultivator has his own land" and restricts the land area per person to no more than 3 hectares. In the 1960s, with the development of South Korea's non-agricultural economy, part of the agricultural land was converted to non-agricultural uses. The South Korean government began to expand the area of farmland by opening up wasteland and reclamation. In the 1970s, the global oil crisis and the outbreak of food shortages forced South Korea to promulgate the "Agricultural Land Protection and Utilization Act" in 1972, which strictly restricted the conversion of agricultural land to other uses. In 1975, South Korea enacted the "Agricultural Land Expansion and Development Promotion Law." The implementation of the "Agricultural and Fishery Village Development Special Measures Law" in the late 1980s changed the ownership of land from the original ownership of family farms that could only be operated independently to allow companies to own land ownership. In 1994, South Korea promulgated a new "Agricultural Land Law" that integrated previous agricultural land laws and regulations. Although the "Agricultural Land Law" follows the principle of "farmers have their land", in accordance with changes in economic and social development, restrictions on land ownership and use rights have been significantly relaxed. In 2002, restrictions on land ownership were finally abolished.

Agricultural population

With the rapid development of South Korea’s industrialization and urbanization, the proportion of agriculture and agricultural population in South Korea’s GDP and total population has also declined rapidly. From 1970 to 2005, the share of agriculture in South Korea’s GDP fell from 25.5% to 2.9%, an average annual decline of 6%; the share of agricultural population in the total population of South Korea fell from 49.5% to 7.6%, an average annual decline of 5.2%. The decline in the agricultural population is slower than the decline in the proportion of agriculture in GDP, which has resulted in a surplus of agricultural population. However, statistics show that the overpopulation in agriculture is due to the fact that people over 40 years old cannot find jobs in new industries and turn to agriculture. This has also increased the average age of the Korean agricultural population and reduced the competitiveness of the labor force structure.

As the agricultural population ageing, the family structure of Korean farming households deteriorates. In the 1960s, the average number of farming households in Korea was six. In 2005, this number decreased to 2.7. The number of farming households with less than two members is growing rapidly. In addition, from 1995 to 2005, the proportion of farm operators under the age of 50 fell from 27.9% to 17.0%, while the proportion of farm operators above the age of 70 increased from 12.7%to 24.3%. As the trading environment for farm households deteriorated, the income gap between Korean farmers and urban residents began to widen. in the mid-1990s, the income of Korean farm households was 90 percent of the income of urban households. While in 2009, this figure dropped to 66.0%.

Agricultural cooperatives

Main entry:National Agricultural Cooperative Federation

The National Agricultural Cooperative Federation is one of the most unusual agricultural cooperatives in the world, operating as a bank, supply of production materials and marketing of agricultural products. At the time of the founding of the country, agricultural cooperatives were established in conjunction with land reform. Agricultural cooperatives in Korea at that time were only responsible for economic activities such as the marketing of agricultural products, while financial operations were handled by agricultural banks. In order to solve the problem of financing cooperatives, the Agricultural Cooperative Association Act was enacted on 29 July 1961 to integrate agricultural cooperatives and agricultural banks into a national agricultural cooperative organisation. In 1981, the city-gun co-operative became a branch of the Central Association of Agricultural Co-operatives and lost its independent legal personality, thus creating a two-tier system of grassroots co-operatives and the Central Association of Agricultural Co-operatives. On 5 February and 9 September 1999, the new Basic Act on Agriculture and Rural Development and the Act on Agricultural Cooperatives were enacted. The former Central Association of Agricultural Cooperatives, the Central Association of Pastoral Cooperatives and the Central Association of Ginseng Cooperatives were merged into the National Central Association of Agricultural Cooperatives, which has one legal personality. The grassroots cooperatives were divided into regional agricultural cooperatives, regional pastoral cooperatives, specialized agricultural cooperatives and specialized agricultural cooperative federations, so that comprehensive and specialized cooperatives coexist and complement each other.

Ninety-eight percent of agricultural households in Korea are members of agricultural cooperatives. The greatest achievement of Korean agricultural cooperatives is that they have solved the problem of pernicious usury, which is widespread in underdeveloped countries and is considered a great success story internationally. However, Korean agricultural cooperatives are generally considered to be more focused on the more profitable banking business at the expense of agricultural marketing, and their marketing role has become particularly important to farmers since the 1990s as agricultural trade liberalization has deepened. In response, Korean agricultural cooperatives have made plans to strengthen their marketing business.

The road to modern agriculture

Measures and contents of Korean modern agriculture

* Changes in the agricultural land system in South Korea

The first step is the reform of the “ land equalization system”: After World War II, South Korea’s policy reclaimed the land occupied by Japanese officials and citizens and allocated it to South Korean farmers. It promulgated the Land Reform Law to purchase more than 3 hectares of land from farmers at low prices, and sold to tenants at a lower price. After this round of land reform, South Korea has basically achieved the goal of a land equalization system. The second step is the intensive distribution of land: Since 1961, after 15 years of development, South Korea has completed the transition from an agricultural country to an industrial country. The government has also begun to gradually loosen restrictions on land sales and encourage farmers who work and do business to return their land. Farmers who are still engaged in agriculture have further expanded their business scale. The third step is the modernization of land management: In 1994, South Korea enacted a new "Farm Land Basic Law", which further relaxed restrictions on land sales and leases, allowing the establishment of agricultural legal persons with a maximum of 100 hectares of land, and the government also encouraged 65 Farmers over the age of 5 years can also get a subsidy of US$2,580 per hectare if they sell or lease their land to professional farmers for more than 5 years.

* Agricultural protection policy

Increase the purchase price of agricultural products. Promote the
balanced price
system (cost + non-agricultural product price changes over the same period). Improve the circulation conditions of agricultural products and agricultural machinery. A large number of agricultural product trading markets have been established, and agricultural machinery subsidies have been issued to farmers. Promote the construction of an "agricultural industrial area" plan. In the rural areas of counties and towns with less than 200,000 people, the government will select sites and carry out infrastructure construction to attract "private" capital to set up factories and enterprises, thereby reducing the proportion of local agriculture. Adjust the rura
industrial structure
an
agricultural structure
The government has invested heavily in adjusting the industrial structure, focusing on the development of secondary and tertiary industries, guiding scientific farming, supportin
deep processing of agricultural products
an
improving agricultural product circulation facilities
Improve infrastructure. The South Korean government has adopted measures such as supporting the development of agricultural associations, increasin
agricultural loans
and restricting the import of foreign agricultural products to protect and support the development of the country's agriculture.

Trends by industry

Plantation

Grain industry

The main crop grown for food in Korea is rice. Eighty percent of Korea's agricultural population is involved in rice production and 54 percent of the arable land is rice fields. In 1978, Korea became self-sufficient in rice through the promotion of new high-yielding rice varieties, and mechanization of rice field operations was achieved in 1996. In addition to rice, the main food crops in Korea are barley, soybeans, corn and wheat. These crops are mainly used for processing in Korea, and only a small proportion is used for rations. With the exception of rice, which is self-sufficient, Korea's self-sufficiency in food production is very low and requires significant imports. Wheat and maize have a self-sufficiency rate of less than 1% and are almost entirely dependent on imports.

= Rice

=

Rice is the most widely grown crop in Korea, and in 2009, it was grown on 924,000 hectares of land, accounting for 53.2% of the country's agricultural land, and accounting for 82% of the country's agricultural population. Since the 21st century, with the increasing westernization of Korean dietary habits, the per capita consumption of rice in Korea has been decreasing year by year. 2009, the total production of rice in Korea decreased from 5.606 million tons in 1990 to 4.916 million tons, and the area of rice fields decreased from 1.244 million hectares in 1990 to 924,000 hectares in 2009.

Between 1990 and 1994, Korea bought an average of 22-30% of its domestic rice production at 1.2 times the market price each year, resulting in an oversupply of rice. The situation. With the Uruguay Round negotiations in 1993 and the establishment of the World Trade Organisation in 1995, Korea began to reduce its rice subsidies in line with its international commitments, and in 2004, Korea's rice subsidies fell from 21.8 trillion won in 1995 to 14.9 trillion won. However, the oversupply of rice in Korea has not changed. According to the relevant international agreements, Korea has to import a certain amount of rice from China, the United States and other countries every year.

= ''Barley''

=
Barley used to be an important substitute for rice in Korea in times of food shortage. With the increase in rice production and wheat imports, barley has lost its status as a major food crop in Korea. in 2006, the area planted with barley in Korea had fallen to 5.7 hectares from 730,000 hectares in 1970. Eighty percent of Korea's barley demand is for processing and is mainly imported, with ration demand accounting for only 15 percent of total demand. Historically, the Korean government adopted the same high price policy for barley as for rice, and the barley market has been liberalized since the Uruguay Round negotiations in 1993. from 1990 to 2011, Korea's self-sufficiency rate for barley fell from 96.1 percent to 22.5 percent.

= Other

=
Korea has an annual demand for soybeans of 1.3-1.6 million tonnes and is largely dependent on imports. Soybeans are mainly used for fodder processing in Korea, with consumption of edible soybeans accounting for only 3.97%. Historically, South Korea had implemented government above-market price purchases to boost soybean production. To alleviate the problem of rice supply exceeding demand, the Korean government also encouraged farmers to grow soybeans in their rice fields and set the purchase price of soybeans in rice fields at the level of income from rice cultivation. With the implementation of Korea's import liberalization policy, government procurement has been significantly reduced. Korea's soybean self-sufficiency rate, which had been as high as 99.4% in 1966, began to decline steadily in 1969, falling to just 6.4% in 2011.

Maize is also one of the commodities purchased and stockpiled by the Korean government. Maize consumption in Korea is almost entirely for processing, with food consumption accounting for only 0.9 percent of total consumption. Production of maize in Korea is very low, and in 2011 the country was only 0.8% self-sufficient in maize.

Wheat was the first crop to be affected by market liberalization in Korea; in 1966, the country's wheat self-sufficiency rate was 43.4% and then declined rapidly from year to year; from 1972 inwards, Korea's wheat self-sufficiency rate fell below 10% and in 1984, the government stopped the government wheat purchase programmer. Since then, Korea's wheat self-sufficiency rate has been less than 1% and is almost entirely dependent on import. Korea's main wheat importers are the USA, Australia and Canada.

Horticulture and special crops

Since joining the WTO, the acreage of vegetables and fruits in Korea has been declining, although the total production of vegetables and fruits has been increasing due to technological progress and the increase in the acreage of greenhouse vegetables. in 2009, the acreage of vegetables and fruits in Korea was 280,000 hectares and 157,000 hectares, and the production was 1.3 million tons and 2.88 million tons respectively. Due to the liberalization of agricultural products, the share of the output value of the vegetable and fruit industries in the total agricultural output value has been on a declining trend, with the share of vegetables at 46.7 percent in 1995 falling to 18.3 percent in 2009 and the share of fruits at 11.7 percent in 1995 falling to 8.5 percent in 2009.

The area under flower cultivation in Korea is showing a growing trend. In 2009, Korea's flower production accounted for only 0.4% of the total agricultural acreage, but 2.6% of the total agricultural production value.

''Panax g''inseng cultivation in Korea has been on the rise since 1997 and in 2009, 19,702 hectares of p''anax'' ginseng were planted with a production of 27,460 tonnes, 2.7 times more than in 1996.

Animal husbandry

From 1990 to 2009, per capita meat consumption in Korea grew at an annual rate of 3.3% and meat production at 2.6%, and the gap between supply and demand has led to an increase in meat imports.

The value of meat production in Korea rose from 3.9516 trillion won in 1990 to 16.484 trillion won in 2009, and its share of agricultural production rose from 25.3 percent to 39.9 percent. Since 2005, the value of animal husbandry in Korea has begun to exceed that of rice..In 2009, the shares of livestock products in Korea were 33.2% for pork, 24.8% for beef, 12.3% for chicken, 10.5% for milk and 8.2% for egg.

Beef

Before the Asian financial crisis, the Korean beef cattle population had been on an upward trend, reaching 2,843,000 head in 1996. As a result of the financial crisis and the full liberalization of Korean beef imports under the Uruguay Round negotiations, the number of Korean beef cattle decreased to 1.406 million head in 2001. After that, the number of Korean beef cattle began to rise gradually as demand pulled up. To meet the challenges of WTO accession, the Korean government sought to expand the size and number of professional cattle farms. The number of specialized cattle farms with 50 or more head of beef cattle increased from 956 in 1990 to 11,148 in 2009, and the number of beef cattle increased from 88,505 to 696,139. At the same time, the number of small farms with a size of 10 heads or less is decreasing significantly. The average number of beef cattle kept on farms increased from 2.6 in 1990 to 10.6 in 2009.

With the rise in national income, annual per capita beef consumption in Korea increased from 4.1 kg in 1990 to 8.1 kg in 2003. Due to the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the United States in December 2003, beef consumption in Korea began to decline and in 2005, per capita annual beef consumption in Korea dropped to 6.6 kg. In 2009, per capita annual beef consumption in Korea slowly recovered to 8.1 kg. Korea's beef self-sufficiency rate, which was above 50 percent until 2000, fell to 42.8 percent in 2001 and further to 36.2 percent in 2003. Due to a reduction in imported beef as a result of the US mad cow disease, Korea's beef self-sufficiency rate returned to 50% in 2009. BSE has had a significant impact on the import mix of Korean beef. Prior to the outbreak of BSE, Korea imported more than 60% of its beef from the US. In 2009, beef imports from Australia accounted for 59.0 percent of Korea's total beef imports, while the share of US beef imports dropped to 25.3 percent.

Milk

From 1990 to 2009, the number of professional dairy cattle with more than 50 cows increased from 659 to 44,068, and the number of cows increased from 57,455 to 366,114. The share of professional dairy farms increased from 2.0% in 1990 to 65.1% in 2009, and the share of the number of cows they kept also increased from 11.4% to 82.3%. Looking at the industry as a whole, the number of dairy farms and cows in Korea is on a downward trend. However, milk production in Korea has continued to grow due to an increase in milk production per cow.

Korea's milk consumption showed a year-on-year increase until 2002, from 42.8 kg per capita in 1990 to 64.2 kg per year in 2002. In 2003, Korea's dairy products began to increase, especially for cheese, powdered milk, frozen milk and butter. Korea's milk self-sufficiency rate fell from 90.1 percent in 1995 to 69.5 percent in 2009.

Pork

The share of pork production value in Korea's animal husbandry has remained at around 30%. after 2000, the number of small pig farms gradually decreased due to the spread of chronic pig diseases. Between 1990 and 2009, the proportion of professional pig farms increased from 0.3% to 39.57%, and the proportion of pigs raised by these farms increased from 23.3% to 86.5%. 86.5%. As a result, the average number of pigs kept on farms in Korea increased from 33.9 to 1,203.8.

The annual per capita consumption of pork in Korea has been increasing year by year, from 11.8 kg in 1990 to 19.1 kg in 2009. In July 1997, Korea began to fully liberalize pork imports, and from 1990 to 2009, Korea's pork self-sufficiency rate fell from 99.5% to 78.9% in 2009. At the same time, Korea exported pork to countries such as Japan, the Philippines, Russia and Mongolia.

Chicken and eggs

The chicken industry is the industry with the most intense mergers and acquisitions in Korea's livestock industry, with the concentration of the industry increasing from 15% to 80% between 1989 and 2006. The value of the industry was 2.0229 trillion won, accounting for 12.3% of Korea's livestock industry, and the self-sufficiency rate of broilers was 87.0%.

From 1990 to 2009, the proportion of professional farms with more than 10,000 hens increased from 26.7% to 80.0 percent, the proportion of hens kept by them increased from 73.7 % to 96.6 %, and the average number of hens kept by farms increased from 10,491 to 37,325. 2009, Korea's egg production was 579,276 tonnes, with a self-sufficiency rate of 99.7%.

Production

South Korea produced, in 2018:

* 5.1 million tons of rice (15th largest producer in the world)
* 3.3 million tons of vegetable
* 2.5 million tons of cabbage (4th largest producer in the world, losing only to China, India and Russia)
* 1.5 million tons of onion (13th largest producer in the world)
* 646 thousand tons of tangerine
* 553 thousand tons of potato
* 534 thousand tons of watermelon
* 475 thousand tons of apple
* 346 thousand tons of persimmon (3rd largest producer in the world, behind only China and Spain)
* 344 thousand tons of tomato
* 333 thousand tons of cucumber
* 331 thousand tons of garlic
* 321 thousand tons of pumpkin
* 314 thousand tons of sweet potato
* 230 thousand tons of pepper
* 213 thousand tons of strawberry (7th largest producer in the world)
* 205 thousand tons of peach
* 203 thousand tons of pear
* 177 thousand tons of grape
* 167 thousand tons of melon

In addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products.South Korea production in 2018, by FAO
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See also

* Aquaculture in South Korea
* New Community Movement
* Rice production in South Korea
* Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (South Korea)

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