| 2018 Public Opinion Survey on Agriculture and Rural Areas | |||
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| Author | Song, Seonghwan | ||
| Views | 50403 | Publication Date | 2019.03.29 |
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The result of the 2018 Public Opinion Survey on Agriculture and Rural Areas shows that many people think agriculture and rural areas are important and have an affection for them. However, while 85.5% of urban people think agriculture and rural areas important, 52.2% of urban people have an affection for them, showing a large difference of 33.3 percentage points. For urban people to recognize the importance of agriculture and rural areas and thereby have an affection for them, various efforts are needed, including experience, promotion, and education. Both farmers and urban people highly evaluated the public value of agriculture and rural areas. Nevertheless, only 53% of urban people were in favor of paying additional tax to maintain and preserve the value. Both farmers (73.1%) and urban people (81.5%) pointed out "stable supply of food" as the most important role of agriculture and rural areas in the present. Nonetheless, as for the future roles, the respondents expected the relative importance of "stable supply of food" would decrease and that the improvement of food safety and regional vitalization would become more important. Farmers and urban people showed the difference in satisfaction with the residential or living environment of their current place of residence: while 33.6% of farmers were satisfied, 54.7% of urban people were satisfied. The level of farmers' self-rated quality of life was also lower than that of urban people's. On the other hand, 47.8% of urban people were in favor of increasing the budget for rural welfare. This figure was higher than the opposite opinion. Among urban people, 31.3% had an intention to return to farming or rural areas for rural and free life. However, many respondents answered that they did not have any concrete plan yet. On the other hand, urban people pointed out inconvenience in the labor and settlement environment as the reason for no intention to return to farming or rural areas. Thus, to promote urban-to-rural migration, it is necessary to provide professional education for urban people's settlement in rural areas as farmers, and to improve settlement conditions. Urban people were more positive about the recent rise in urban-to-rural migrants than farmers. Farmers were more positive about the increase in young people's urban-to-rural migration than about the growth of the total urban-to-rural migrants. This seems to show that farmers are concerned about labor shortage due to aging and the lack of agricultural successors. On the other hand, 30% of farmers were negative about the increase in urban-to-rural migrants because of conflicts and disharmony with existing residents. Therefore, it is needed to provide urban-to-rural migrants with prior training on communication with existing residents and on conflict management. Overall, both urban people and farmers responded that the safety and competitiveness of domestic agricultural products were high. Nevertheless, on the purchase of domestic and imported agricultural products, the following response accounted for the highest proportion and is increasing gradually: "I will purchase imported agricultural products if domestic ones are much more expensive." This result implies the need to secure the quality competitiveness and price competitiveness of domestic agricultural products. Although farmers' overall job satisfaction improved compared to 2017, still the percentage of dissatisfaction was relatively high. The biggest reason for dissatisfaction was "low income for efforts." Also, farmers pointed out "labor shortage due to the decrease and aging of the rural population" as the biggest factor threatening farm management. Therefore, in terms of policy support, it is necessary to stabilize the prices of agricultural products and farmers' income, and secure the workforce by increasing urban-to-rural migration and fostering young farmers. Concerning satisfaction with the present rural life, the percentage of satisfied farmers was much higher than that of dissatisfied farmers. Nonetheless, the survey result shows that farmers' physical health conditions are not good, and their health management is insufficient. Thus, it is needed to enable farmers to check and manage their health by improving the accessibility of medical care and transportation in rural areas. Researchers: Song Seonghwan and Park Hyejin Research period: 2018. 1. ~ 2018. 12. E-mail address: song9370@krei.re.kr, frog78@krei.re.kr |
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