Environment-friendly agro-materials are agricultural materials used in environment-friendly farming, not the fertilizers and agro-chemicals used in the conventional modern agriculture. The agro-materials commonly used in environment-friendly agriculture include organic fertilizers, compost, manure, organic soil, bio agro-chemicals, natural enemies, and bio micro-organisms. Nevertheless, it is difficult to clearly define the concept and scope of environment-friendly agro-materials. Moreover, the accompanying legal basis is inadequate. Many problems arose in the process of production, distribution and utilization of environment-friendly agro-materials. However, no significant effort has been made so far to examine and solve the problems. Since environment-friendly agro-materials are an essential element of organic agriculture, they are projected to be an important variable in the continuous advancement of organic agriculture in the future.
The '5-Year Plan to Promote Environment-Friendly Agriculture for 2006-2010' is the basic framework of the government policy to promote environment-friendly farming. It comprises projects that aim to support environment-friendly agro-materials. However, the scope of the current system and accompanying projects is limited and entails various problems in real life. The fundamental reason for such problems is thought to be attributable to the lack of comprehensive promotional contents and a long-term plan. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the current status of environment-friendly agro-materials and related problems ranging from efficient utilization on the consumption side to production and distribution on the supply side. The study also discussed the current situation and problems on the institutional side and presented measures to improve the problems in all aspects.
In solving the problems found in the research, policy improvement is a prerequisite. As for the direction of improvement, the concept of environment-friendly agro-materials should be defined within a legal framework while the laws and institutions that support the government policies should be systematically arranged. To alleviate the problems that arise from the production and distribution aspects of environment-friendly agro-materials, concerned parties need to play a proper role. In the first place, the government should ① set up a direction to foster environment-friendly agro-materials and fix the comprehensive policy and management system, ② expand necessary financial aids, ③ coordinate conflicting policies during implementation, ④ reinforce management and supervision in partnership with private organizations and provide tailored support in different management stages, and ⑤ introduce a trademark system.
In the case of related organizations and groups, it is necessary for them to ① seek ways to unify their own channels for importing raw materials, ② improve competitiveness by strengthening voluntary management and supervision, and ③ delegate parts of its duties in cooperation with the government.
Individual firms should play adequate roles on the supply side of producing and distributing environment-friendly agro-materials. First, producing companies need to ① actively take part in improving pending problems of the domestic agro-materials industry, ② foster experts and improve product quality, and ③ secure credibility through improved after-sales management. As for distribution companies, they need to consider ① mandating their workers to be enrolled in specialized educational programs of a certain level since they act as transmitters of information to farmers in the process of selling the products or ② consider introducing a registration system for managing the sales outlets specializing in environment-friendly agro-materials. To alleviate the problems that may arise when using the agro-materials, they need to consider adopting programs educating workers on related information and knowledge or set up call centers for accidents and damages. They could also consider adopting programs that reinforce the management of price and effect of environment-friendly agro-materials.
Researchers: Kang, Chang-Yong; Lee, Woong-Yeon
E-mail address: cykang@krei.re.kr