Green Technology Utilization and New Breeds Cultivation Are Key to Green Growth in Agricultural Sector
Experts claim at an international symposium hosted by KREI and CDI 

On September 10, the Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI) and Chungnam Development Institute (CDI) held an international symposium titled “Green Growth in Agricultural Sector as a Response to Climate Change.” Prof. Robert Mendelsohn of Yale University delivered the keynote speech titled “Climate Change and Agriculture: Impacts and Adaptations.” Prof. Mendelsohn, who pointed out that the amount of greenhouse gases agriculture emits takes up less than 2% of the total greenhouse gas emission in the United States, asserted that greenhouse gas emission can be reduced by using less fertilizers and diesel-fueled machinery and by improving livestock farming techniques. 

Wilfrid Legg, head of the Policies and Environment Division in the OECD Agriculture Directorate, delivered a speech on “Climate Change and Agriculture: Impacts, Adaptation, and Mitigation – An OECD Perspective.” In the presentation, he claimed that combining the two policies of reducing greenhouse gases and adapting to climate change and enforcing it in link with other policies is an effective way to cope with the climate change. 

Kim Chang-Gil, a senior fellow of KREI, gave a presentation on Korea’s ways to cope with climate change in agriculture. After explaining the effects of climate change on temperature, precipitation, and the amount of solar radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface, Kim stressed that it is important to take up the following measures: rearrangement of farmland, spread of cultivation technologies and ways to control plant diseases, utilization of low-carbon green technologies, cultivation of new breeds, and full-fledged implementation of risk management system.” 

Kiyotada Hayashi of National Agriculture and Food Research Center of Japan said that since agriculture’s adaptation to climate change and its mitigation strategies can be examined in the overall process of agricultural activities, it is important to reduce the direct emission of greenhouse gases from soil and farming machinery in the front end of farming cycle and manage farming machinery, fertilizers, agrochemicals, and wastes in the back end of the cycle. 

Lee In-Hee, Fellow of Chungnam Development Institute, said that it is necessary to step up the research on coping with global warming by means of building up a basis for adaptation to climate change, utilization of new renewable energy, new breeds, and alternative crops, and low-input farming.