Research Reports
Current Situation of Rice Industry and Prospect for Structural Change
-
AuthorKim, Jeongho
-
Publication Date2004.12.01
-
Original
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to explore new policy measures and alternatives through analyzing the Korean rice industry structure since 1990, and to analyze the cost vs. income, the industry size and the types of production technique. In addition, this study is designed to provide information regarding rice policy policies directions in response to diverse circumstances to enhance the Korean rice industry.
This study has used the data of the NSO (National Statistics Office) regarding rice production cost, farm household economy and Korean agricultural census. The analysis of cultivated land use displays that the size of the rice industry is decreasing. As a result, rice farming area decreased more than 1,016 thousand ha in 2003, and it is expected that the rice cultivating land will get smaller to approximately 767,000 ha by 2014. In the regional analysis, the to 30 rice cultivating areas accounted for 43% of the entire rice cultivating land nationwide and 36% of the total farm household income in 2000. Such regions are the centre of the rice industry.
In the analysis of the type of paddy farm, the married couple ratio was 47%, and one person household ratio 49% of the total farm where farm manager's age is over 60. Therefore, it displays that farm managers are getting older gradually. The number of paddy farm family members was smaller than that of total farm households with 2.86 persons per household in 2000. The analysis of the farm manager's age structure shows that paddy farm component ratio when the farm manager's age is 60 years old was 31.1% in 1990, but the ratio became 52% in 2000 due to the swift aging trend. In the medium-term prospect for the rice farm households, the total number of rice farm households is expected to decline swiftly in 2005 to 850 thousands persons on account of the reduction in cultivated land and to fall further to below 480 thousands persons by 2014.
The ratio of paddy farm households with 0.5ha to below 3ha had increased continuously and remarkably. In other words, there was a clear distinction between the two groups. The large farm households take a greater portion of the farm land. In the situation of paddy field lease, the large farms records higher ratio of leased land. It is found that small farms prefer land contract-based rice farming, and aged farmers prefer to lease the land.
Finally, this study suggests several significant policy implications and rice industry policy measures in Korea. First, rice industry policies should be differentiated according to the development types of paddy farm households. The full-time paddy farm households should accomplish economy of scale by converging farmland, and it is necessary to explore effective and efficient policy to protect rice industry under market liberalization. Therefore, the government should consider the ways to enlarge the size of rice farms to increase the total farm income and to support farm income growth with diverse ways.
Researchers: Jeong-Ho Kim and Byoung-Hoon Lee
E-mail Address: jhkim@krei.re.kr
- Next
- Developing Social Capital Measuring Indicators
- Prev
- Effects of the Chinese Economic Growth on Korean Agriculture and Strategies to Boost the Agricultural Export to China