Background and Purpose
This study aims to address agricultural and rural policies related to public finance, planning, and governance to decentralize agricultural administration.

The first-year study reviewed overall issues of agricultural promotion system and corresponding conditions, and then presented the projects to be transferred to local governments. The second-year study investigated the effect of fiscal decentralization and proposed policies to support the decentralization.

The last-year study suggests the improvement plans and policies for governance and finalizes the results of the past two years of research on finance and planning

Research Methodology
We reviewed governance-related studies for the definition and various cases of governance and governance organizations. We surveyed and interviewed representatives and practitioners of government organizations and local government officials to analyze the current status of local agricultural governance including partnership, local decision-making process, and collecting opinions from rural residents or farmers.

Key Findings
In the agricultural policy area, there are several forms of governance, such as the “Committee of Agricultural, Rural, and Food Industry Policy Review Committee,” agricultural advisory bodies, and the Chamber of Agriculture. In the rural development policy, there are various types of governance, such as community development centers, social economy networks. Some organizations implement the agricultural project and residents' autonomy organizations as a type of governance at the township level.

The “Local Agricultural Review Council(afterward, the LARC),” established by local government, deliberates local agricultural policies. Although it is an important council for agriculture, it fails to play a proper role as a governance structure due to the wrong practices of agricultural policy implementation.

The purpose of the Chamber of Agriculture is to engage farmers in local agricultural policy. Its main goal is to collect farmers’ opinions and reflect them in local agricultural policies. Various activities carried out by the Chamber of Agriculture include public opinion surveys on local agricultural policies, sharing information on agricultural and rural policies, farmers’ education, planning local agricultural projects, and conveying farmers’ opinions to local governments. The Chamber of Agriculture needs to share the experiences of their activities to vitalize it as local agricultural governance. In the long run, an institutional mechanism should also be established to ensure that the representative function guarantees for the Chamber of Agriculture.

(For more information, please refer to the report.)

Researchers: Kim Jeongseop, Kim Namhoon, Kim Jeongseung, Cho Yeonui, Kang Maya, Lee Dokyung
Research period: 2020. 1. ~ 2020. 12.
E-mail address: jskkjs@krei.re.kr