Researchers surveyed 1,500 city residents and 857 farmers to find out about their opinions of agriculture and rural life. The results of the survey, which was conducted from December 2006 to January 2007, showed that the city residents think "agriculture will remain an important industry even in the future (84%)" and "the industry needs to be protected (60.7%)." With respect to those farmers who stand against the complete opening of the agricultural market, 74.5% of the city residents said that the farmers' feelings are understandable. Also, nine out of ten city residents (90.4%) recognized the importance of "public functions" agriculture and rural communities play, but only 52.8% of them said that they approve of a government policy to additionally charge them with financial burdens to sustain the public goodness of agriculture and rural communities.
Slightly more than a half of the city residents (51.3%) thought that the most desirable countermeasure to the further market opening is to improve the competitiveness of the agricultural industry itself, whereas an approximately same number of farmers considered a proper compensation policy as the best option to relieve the damage caused by the market opening. As to the means of compensation, the urban people preferred "indirect compensation (53.2%)" while the farmers opted for "direct compensation (49.8%)." This indicates that it is necessary to formulate a concrete policy with the conflicting views in mind. In terms of residential environment and living conditions, the urban people said that they are satisfied with their residential and living environment (14.8%) and that their quality of lives is 'relatively high' (14.8%). However, only 25% and 9.3% of the farmers said that they are satisfied with their living environment and quality of life, respectively.
In addition, 71.3% of the urban people said that they wish to reside in an urban area after retirement, implying that an inducement program for rural residence is needed. As for the safety of agricultural products, 63.0% of the urban people said that they have trust in domestically produced agricultural products. A greater number of the urban people (78.7%) also said that domestic agricultural products are safer than those from the United States. With respect to the welfare policy for rural communities, 86.5% of the urban people admitted that, in consideration of the current state of welfare in rural areas, a complimentary policy is necessary. 75.4% of the urban people agree with the idea of a budget increase to augment the welfare in rural areas, implying that the respondents think political influence is essential to improve the quality of welfare in rural areas.
Farmers' assessment of their rural lives and jobs has been changing in a positive way: 24.6% of the farmer respondents said that their quality of life last year (2006) has improved compared to that of 5 years ago and that of 2005. The number of respondents who said their quality of life has improved from the previous year of 2005 has increased by 6.6%. In terms of job satisfaction, 21.2% of the farmers, a 4.1% increase from the previous survey, said that they are satisfied with their job.
Researchers: Dong-Weon Kim and Hye-Jin Park
Research period: 2006. 12. - 2007. 01.
E-mail address: dongweon@krei.re.kr, frog78@krei.re.kr