The Project for Developing Large-scale Environment-friendly Agricultural Districts (PDLEAD) is a core project to promote and establish the environment-friendly agriculture as a driving power for the growth engine of future agriculture by investing KRW 10 billion (central government funding: 50%, local government funding: 40%, self-funding: 10%) to each district for 2 years. This Project was launched in 2006 (Phase 1) primarily in 3 regions of Wanju, Suncheon and Uljin, which has already been completed and has been in effect in 6 regions of Yanggu, Okcheon, Iksan, Jangheung, Seongju and Sancheong since 2007 (Phase 2).
As a result of self-evaluation of the projects that have been implemented between 2006 and 2008, it is suggested that the progress and performance of project implementation are not satisfactory. In this context, this study aims at identifying the problems in PDLEAD through diagnosis of the actual conditions of large-scale environment-friendly agricultural districts and comprehensive analysis of the project results, to derive improvement plans and propose efficient implementation plans.
In this study report, Chapter 1 deals with the necessity of this study and literature review; Chapter 2 describes the actual conditions of implementing the large-scale environment-friendly agricultural districts; Chapter 3 presents the results of examining the actual conditions of the large-area agricultural districts; Chapter 4 describes the evaluation of the performance of the large-area agricultural districts; Chapter 5 proposes follow-up plans; and Chapter 6 summarizes and concludes this study.
It was found that there has been a discrepancy between the original planing for receiving the fund for PDLEAD and the actual implementation plan after being selected as a recipient of PDLEAD, and the nutrient balance of agricultural resources of each district was not properly considered. It appeared that in most large-scale agricultural districts, residents of nearby areas opposed the Resourcefied Center of Crop-Animal Farming (ReCaf) as an obnoxious facility, resulting in the delay of its construction.
The highlights of the study are summarized as follows:
First, the PDLEAD is a top-down government-initiated project to establish the infrastructure for environment-friendly agriculture. So, it was shown that both the farmers and the people in charge of the policy agreed on the necessity of the project. However, it was revealed by the low degree of participation of the concerned farmers in the project that it would be difficult to achieve the objective of authenticating the environment-friendly agricultural products.
Second, most of 9 regions for which the PDLEAD has been implemented have poorly achieved their objectives drawn from evaluating the results in comparison to the objective of the project, Especially, Iksan district has achieved the least, requiring special actions to be taken.
Third, it appeared that during the PDLEAD period all efforts were focused on installation of the establishment and purchase of the related equipment and therefore effective operation plans and follow-up plans were not established properly. In addition, even though in order for the ReCaf to operate smoothly it has to be established as a business that could produce revenue for the district, it does not appear to be realistic to secure the operating expenses for the ReCaf office when the project ends.
Fourth, in order to operate the ReCaf facility smoothly, an organization with a sound capital structure and enough operation experiences has to be selected as an operating body. Follow-up management for the ReCaf facility consists of facility, quality and profitability managements, of which the profitability management appears to be most important.
Fifth, for the large-scale agricultural districts to make profits to continue its operation, marketing strategies should be provided to find markets for their environment-friendly agricultural products and to sell the composts from livestock manure produced at the ReCaf facility at reasonable prices. In order to ensure the success of the PDLEAD, it is necessary to select an organization that will take charge of efficient operation of each facility and of its follow-up management as well as to establish tentatively named “large-scale environment- friendly agricultural district operation support group” that will support the organization’s operation indirectly and implement the related projects.
Sixth, to develop the large-scale agricultural district established in each area into a foundation for green growth in the future agricultural sector, it is necessary to positively establish plans to develop the district in connection with the biomass town and the low-carbon agricultural production systems.
Lastly, to make the most of the large-scale agricultural districts established in each area and develop an organic relationship with the above mentioned town and system, it is needed to examine a plan to organize and implement the tentative named “Large-scale Environment-friendly District Association (tentative name).” The association will be able to contribute to establishing stable markets for the environment-friendly agricultural products from the district by concluding the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the district and large distribution companies and also to utilize the subsidy for environment-friendly agricultural produce for expanding the nationwide joint marketing for environment-friendly agricultural products by connecting “production-processing-distribution” and for promoting their consumption.
Researchers: Chang-Gil Kim, Hak-Kyun Jeong, and Sang-Gun Lee
E-mail address: changgil@krei.re.kr