Background of Research
Korea's total energy consumption increased by 3.2% on an annual average basis between 2000 and 2011. By contrast, the total energy consumption in the country's agriculture, forestry and fisheries decreased by 2.7% over the same period. The decrease in the use of energy in the agriculture sector was attributable to a decline in agricultural production activities driven by financial troubles that farm households faced in the aftermath of rising international oil prices.
In agricultural production, innovative ways are required to save energy and to replace petroleum-based energy with non-petroleum-based energy. To seek the ways, it is necessary to study where, how much and how energy is being used to produce agricultural products, and to research and analyze the current status of energy use in the agriculture sector by source, purpose and crop (livestock).
Tax-free oil and agricultural electricity for the agriculture sector have great influence on agricultural production. Hence, there is also a need to analyze how the two factors have a ripple effect on agricultural production and to review the government's policy direction toward them.

Method of Research
This study researches and analyzes the current status of energy consumption in agriculture and forestry. First of all, with regard to 283 items of standard incomes published by Korea's state-run Rural Development Administration, it collects original materials published between 2000 and 2012 and analyzes the status of energy use by item. Additionally, a survey of energy consumption in farm households and agriculture and forestry companies is conducted in twice. On the basis of the first and second survey, this study examines energy consumption in farm households (rice farming, protected horticulture, specialty crops) and organizes utilization and awareness of energy-saving facilities and energy alternative facilities. It also conducts another survey of policy makers such as experts and public officials in charge of tax-free oil supplied by the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation and agricultural electricity supplied by Korea Electric Power Corporation, etc. Finally, it carries out commissioned researches for inter-industry analysis, agricultural tax-free oil, analysis of energy supply and demand and energy input structure in the agriculture sector and rural communities, and reflects a diversity of views through consultation meetings with experts by field.

Research Results and Implications
Korea's total energy consumption increased by 3.2% on an annual average basis between 2000 and 2011. By contrast, the total energy consumption in the country's agriculture, forestry and fisheries decreased by 2.7% over the same period. The decrease in the use of energy in the agriculture sector was attributable to a decline in agricultural production activities driven by financial troubles that farm households faced in the aftermath of rising international oil prices.
By energy source, the entire country's petroleum-based energy consumption accounts for 38.1% of the total energy consumption, whereas its agriculture's consumption of petroleum-based fuels and electricity accounts for 57.2% and 35.0% respectively. This explains that the two sources take a large portion of energy consumption in the agriculture sector.
By crop (livestock), the total energy consumed to raise food crops included 48 million kilowatts of electricity, 31 million liters of diesel and 11 million liters of gasoline as of 2012. Diesel consumption was witnessed to steadily decrease. To put it more concretely, the diesel consumption for food crops amounted to 50 million liters in 2001, but it fell to 31 million liters after 2010, which was responsible for a decline in the total arable land.
The total energy consumed to grow crops under cover included 3.863 billion kilowatts of electricity, 758 million liters of diesel, 13 million liters of kerosene and 312 million liters of heavy oil as of 2012. Also, electricity consumption rose sharply whereas diesel consumption declined slightly. In terms of consumption composition by energy source, diesel shows a steady falling tendency but still occupies more than 60%, and heavy oil and electricity account for approximately 20% and 10% respectively.
The livestock industry sector, in general, had a high consumption of electricity. By livestock, Korean cattle farming consumed 14.6% of petroleum-based fuels, 84.8% of electricity, 0.7% of other energy sources. Dairy cattle farming consumed 22.5% of petroleum-based fuels and 77.5% of electricity. Pig farming used 19.3% of petroleum and 80.7% of electricity. Layer farming used 100% of electricity.
By energy source, the use of petroleum-based fuels averaged 3,544 liters per farm household, and some farm households consumed a maximum of 80,100 liters. By use, 86.3% of petroleum-based fuels went to agricultural machines, which indicates that there are a lot of agricultural machines using petroleum-based fuels. Besides, 7.4% and 5.0% were used respectively for transportation and greenhouses.
With regard to the use of electricity, 91.4% of the respondents said that they used agricultural electricity, and the result of the survey shows that an average of 51,632.8 kilowatt-hours were consumed in 2012. By use, agricultural machinery consumed the most electricity (85.3%), followed by livestock (15.4%), agricultural buildings and offices (13.7%), and greenhouses (12.5%).
Among difficulties that farm households faced, rice farmers singled out the lack of tax-free oil supplies (52.4%) as the biggest challenge in terms of the use of agricultural energy, followed by high oil prices (23.9%).
Vegetable farmers cited the lack of tax-free oil supplies (27.6%) as the most difficulty, followed by a heavy burden imposed by installation, replacement and maintenance costs of energy-efficient facilities (26.3%) and high oil prices (24.3%).
Fruit farmers responded that the lack of tax-free oil supplies was the most challenging in regard to the energy use (33.3%). They also picked out a burden imposed by installation and maintenance costs of relevant facilities including energy-efficient low temperature warehouses (25.4%), followed by high energy consumption of low temperature warehouses (21.5%).
Flower farmers presented a variety of problems rather than a single one. However, only 13.6% of the respondents indicated high electricity fees, which shows that they had a relatively lower level of complaints about electricity fees. The reason is that they use petroleum-based fuels as a main energy source rather than electricity.
Unlike flower farmers, livestock farmers thought of not only a burden imposed by installation, replacement and maintenance costs of energy-efficient facilities (27.0%) but also high electricity fees (25.7%) as the most difficult problems because they used electricity as a main energy source.

Researchers: Yean-Jung Kim, Jong-Jin Kim, Hye-Sung Han
Research Period: 2013. 1 ～ 2013. 12
E-mail address: yjkim@krei.re.kr.