Research Reports
A Study on Structural Change in Agriculture Using the 1990, 1995 and 2000 Census Data
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AuthorKim, Jeongho
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Publication Date2003.12.01
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Original
A Study on Structural Change in Agriculture Using the 1990, 1995 and 2000 Census Data
The main objective of this study is to provide fundamental data for related policies and researches through analysis and to forecast Korean agricultural structure using data sets of Korean agricultural census (1990, 1995, and 2000). Especially, the analysis of farm family member structure, farm labour structure, land use structure, agricultural production structure and farm management structure is a key focus in this study.
Korean agricultural census (survey of farm population) is to find a basic structure of the Korean agriculture including farm household, farm population, cultivated area, crop harvested area, livestock, farm machinery and so on. This census had classified farms into two groups : individual farms and farming related organizations (school, governmental institute, religious organization, commercial organization, etc.) until 1995. However, from 2000, the farm survey has been carried out only regarding individual farms.
In general, a farm household means the household conducting agriculture for the purpose of livelihood, profit making, and research. However, the definition of farm management has changed over the time of conducting the Korean agricultural census survey. That is, in the 2000 census, the farm household was defined as either the household cultivating over 10a (about 300 pyeong) or the household doing farming work along with agricultural products sales worth over half million won (that includes the farm breeding livestock valued at over half million won)
The type of farm family member and generation are considered in the analysis of farm family member structure. The number of farm family member changed by family life cycle. That is, the number of farm family members was 4.7 persons (maximum) in 1990 in case where the farm manager's age is 45 years old. However, the number went down to 4.1 persons (maximum) in 2000 in case where the farm manager's age is 35.
Thus, it shows that the number of farm family members decreased in the farm households where the farm manager's age is over 40. And in cases where farm manager's age is over 50, the number of farm family members is 2 or 1 person. Looking at the farm family member structure in 2000, this situation seems to be a severe problem because 47% of the total farm households have 2 persons (husband and wife) or are bachelor households.
Looking at the age structure of farm population in 2000, the aging (above 65) index of farm household was 191 (domestic average was 34.3 in 2000) and the supporting expenditure index for old persons in 2000 was 32.5 at farm household (domestic average was 10.1 in 2000). Referring to this aging trend, it is predicted that the proportion of over 64 year-old farmers will be 34% and the number of farm households will be about 810,000 by 2010.
The analysis of farm labour structure displays the decreasing trend of farm workers and the aging trend.
The study results show that 85 percents of over 50 years old (farm family members) were employed in agriculture and 90 percent of over 60 years old (farm family members) were employed in agriculture in 2000. And another results show that the number of agricultural workers was 1.95 persons (per household on average) among the full-time farm households and 2.16 persons among the part-time farm households. The farm households possessing farming successors accounted for 16.4 percent in 1990. Yet, the figure dropped to 11 percent in 2000. However, successors over 30 years old and women successors increased recently.
As for land use structure, the proportion of both the poor and large farm households increased remarkably. In other words, there was a clear distinction between the two groups. And cultivated land was concentrated among the large farm households, which occupied 4.7% in 1990.
The rate of farm households cultivating over 2ha (paddy field) was 4.7% of total farm households, and they managed 16.9% of total cultivated area in 1990. But the former increased to 8.4% and the latter to 32.3% in 2000. That is, the agricultural resources such as cultivated land and livestock have been concentrated among the large farm households. Capital-intensive agriculture such as greenhouse horticulture and livestock have been increasingly dominated by the full-time farm households.
With these analytic results, we drew out several significant policy implications and suggested several policies for structural adjustments in the Korean agriculture. Agricultural structure-related policies should be differentiated according to the development types of farm households. To accelerate agricultural restructuring, policy measures should be prepared according to different development types of farm households. However, Instead of forcing the measures, the government should propose a variety of programs and let farm households select what they like.
Researchers: Kim Jeong-Ho, Kim Tae-Gon, Kim Bae-Sung
and Lee Byoung-Hoon
e-mail Address: jhkim@krei.re.kr
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