| An International Comparative Analysis of Production Structures of Major Agricultural and Livestock Products and Plans to Improve Management Performance | |||
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| Author | Seo, Daeseok | ||
| Views | 43722 | Publication Date | 2019.03.30 |
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Background of Research The facility horticulture and hog raising industry in the Republic of Korea has shown the second highest production output next to that of rice by being supported from various policies and systems of the government. Especially, facility horticulture has played a leading role in development of the agriculture sector by contributing to the stability of supply and demand for fresh produce, and improvement of farm household income as well as export of agricultural products. The government has presented a vision for the facility horticulture industry, ‘becoming the leading industry for domestic demand and exports in the era of open economy’ and actively implemented the related policies for establishing highly efficient stable production infrastructure and expanding a cost-reduced production system. Despite the foregoing efforts, the productivity and income level of Korea’s facility horticulture are still low compared with the advanced countries in agriculture while the high cost production structure is continuing. In case of tomato and bell pepper, the Netherlands’ production output per unit area is 6 times and 5 times respectively, and Denmark’s MSY (Marketed pigs per Sow per Year) is twice Korea's. These fragmentary differences and differences in external and organizational structure would not be enough to explain the difference in productivity of major agricultural products compared to those of advanced countries. Thus it is necessary to reconsider improvement plans for the productivity of Korea's hog raising industry and major facility horticulture products in order to secure farm household income and export competencies by more clearly investigating the cause and factor of the productivity gap between Korea and advanced agriculture countries. Method of Research This study was conducted through literature review and by collecting and analyzing policy programs, preceding research data, and related statistic data by each country. The subjects of the research are tomato, bell pepper, hog raising farm households, the Netherlands’ tomato and bell pepper, and Denmark’s hog raising farm households. The production related big data were collected and analyzed by selecting two comparison groups for tomato and bell pepper farm households. Related secondary materials and literature materials were used to analyze for hog raising due to the time and physical limitation. In addition, two interviews with experts and leading farm households, and IPA (importance performance analysis) were conducted in order to find causes of the productivity gap with advanced countries and problems of development measures for the facility horticulture and livestock industry. Research Results and Implications As a result of direct productivity comparison on the pertinent groups for tomato and bell pepper, which are major agricultural products, per unit area between Korea and the Netherlands, it is found that there is not a big difference in their productivity between Korea’s leading farm households and the Netherlands’ mid-high farm households. Especially, the productivity in peak seasons in Korea shows more than 90% that of the Netherlands. On the other hand, the productivity in low harvest seasons in Korea shows below 50% that of the Netherlands’ top leading farm households and upper class farm households. It is analyzed that the labor productivity of the Netherlands is 2.1 times more than that of Korea. In order to resolve this productivity gap, firstly it is necessary to research on the related tools and materials, and technological factors to improve productivity in the low harvest seasons, and to acquire related training and skills. Secondly, many efforts from both public and private sectors are required to improve labor productivity and for young professionals to work for related industries benchmarking the Netherlands’ case. It is true that the hog raising industry is far behind advanced European countries in various indexes such as WSY, PSY, MSY, mortality rate, and so on. In order to overcome the foregoing, the pig improvement network that the government is promoting should be reinforced so that the management of excellent pig breeds should be improved to the level of advanced countries’. Secondly, MSY or feed efficiency in Korea should be improved so that business owners are required to be more in proactive management and competency enforcement. As for the fall of the MSY index due to the livestock mortality rate, it is very important to exterminate the cause of infectious diseases. Therefore, it is needed to prepare counterplans and implement related policies through the government and hog raising industry’s proactive research and development for so many viruses and bacterial diseases including foot-and-mouth disease, PED, PRRS, and swine fever. Based on the result of the IFA (Importance-Feasibility Analysis) on the expert’s opinion on the importance, economic feasibility, and urgency of development plans for the facility horticulture and hog raising industry, the following shall be conducted. First, better education and training for farmers are to be reinforced while production facilities and tools and materials also shall be expanded in order to support production infrastructure. It is necessary to expand the infrastructure for education, training, and consulting while upgraded education opportunity shall be provided to expand the participation from private sectors. Furthermore, facility scale-up and complex creation, and the government’s modernization such as “high-tech greenhouse project” and “pigpen facility modernization project” shall be more actively conducted. Secondly, upstream and downstream industries shall be fostered by developing breeds and seedlings, focusing on cutting-edge ICT convergence R&D, and training experts. It is necessary to develop a breed cultivatable in high temperature and humidity by promoting and properly supporting a specialized seedling company. Based on the ongoing ‘smart farm innovation valley’ project with the government support, it is required to actively cope with both domestic and global future demands as well as education and R&D on high-tech agriculture and livestock farming and fostering professional human resources to provide professional consulting by active participation and investment from private companies. For expanding cutting-edge ICT convergence projects and R&D, it is necessary to establish a mid-long term roadmap while the government and private sectors’ efforts shall be focused to realize the foregoing. Researchers: Seo Daeseok, Kim Byungryul, Choe Jinyong Research period: 2018. 1. ~ 2018. 10. E-mail address: dssuh@krei.re.kr |
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