We performed a research project for the development plan of agriculture and rural community of Jecheon City located at Chungcheongbuk-Do. In particular, to cope with our opened domestic market of agricultural products along with the globalization trend and forthcoming several FTAs, we tried to establish comprehensive preplans of agricultural policies on the stand of Jecheon City. Also, one of our goals is to boost up Jecheon City's execution potential of agricultural policies utilizing the current or incoming natural and financial resources.
As the first step, we investigated the current natural resources within the whole region of Jecheon City to derive diverse demands on the agricultural and non-agricultural sector.
In our research, we proposed the future direction and vision for the agricultural and rural development. As in-depth research, we exhibited several specialized items out of numerous agricultural products which could be the most appropriate for eight individual rural county under different pre-endowed conditions. Further, we performed several in-depth interviews with wholesalers in Garak Agricultural & Marine Products Wholesale Market to obtain their opinions and evaluations on key agricultural products from Jecheon City: Apple, Peach, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Western Style Radish Leaves, Cucumber, Dried Red Pepper, Herb(Hwang-Gi) etc.
We found several items had the comparative specialization potential in Jecheon such as apple, peach, cucumber, red bean. These items might have greater market potential as long as their product quality and marketing competence are well equipped.
As the result of our research, we proposed several agricultural policies for the development of Jecheon Agriculture. First, they need to expand the frontier of retail and wholesale market both inside and outside Jecheon for the key products. Second, expanding environmentally-friendly agricultural products with a fortified marketing endeavor is essential. Third, the organization of key farmers must be cultivated under the opened market environment. Fourth, bottom-up Green Tourism should be expanded and vitalized to increase non-agricultural income. Fifth, the extention of welfare service such as the settlement environment for the silver (retired) generation should be enhanced in quality and the amenity of rurality should be preserved for a long time.
Researchers: Byung-Ryul Kim, Si-Hyun Park, Seong-Cheon Seo, Myoungki Lee, Chanhee Rhew
E-mail: brkim@krei.re.kr