Economic Prospects and Policies for Sustainable Agriculture in Korea

친환경농업의 경제성과 육성방안

Sustainable agriculture in Korea will gain important momentum by implementing The Direct Payment Scheme for Environmentally Friendly Agriculture in 1999. The farmers who want to participate in the program will be paid 530,000won/ha directly by the Government in return for engaging sustainable agriculture. The policy scheme which is a pilot program will be restricted to environmentally regulated areas to apply such as water supply protection zone, environmental protection districts and national parks. As a consequence of the policy, the supply of transitional organic agricultural products is expected to increase significantly. However the increased supply of low input agricultural products may have difficulties to find an appropriate marketing channel which is differentiated from the general agricultural product market. Development of an open market system for mass transaction of the low imput agricultural products is necessary. Also various government programs and projects which are designed for clean environment and regional community development must be integrated into the sustainable agriculture program to have synergy effects.