| Pluriactivities of Family Farms in Rural Korea | |||
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| Author | Kim, Jeongseop | ||
| Views | 53604 | Publication Date | 2017.02.17 |
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Background of Research There are many family farms in rural Korea. Most of those families can’t maintain their livelihood without jobs other than their own farming. Pluriactivities are not only very important livelihood strategy for farm households but also parts of the mechanisms that support rural communities’ social and economic sustainability. This study aims to figure out the current pluriactivities in rural Korea in order to give some implications for policy agendas about agriculture and rural development. Method of Research Various methods and data were employed. The preceding researches have been reviewed. Analysis on the current situation of pluriactivity has been conducted with a survey and some interviews. On the basis of these analyses, we drew some implications for policy-makers and researchers to consider when they design any policies. Research Results and Implications There has been a perspective on agricultural/rural development, that agricultural development which is represented by ‘scale enlargement’ and ‘professionalization’ is the very rural development. This perspective is a powerful one in designing national agricultural and rural development policy. Based on this perspective, pluriactivities which are found in many family farms are just minor and temporary phenomena. However, in rural Korea, pluriactivity is prevalent livelihood strategies of farm families. Pluriactivity family farms are 83.7% of all the family farms, implying that family farming is the most dominant mode of farming in Korea. We specified four family farms’ pathways by the levels of income from their own farming and other gainful activities, as followings: (1) scale enlargement and specialized farm development, (2) deactivation of agriculture, (3) peasant development, and (4) pauperization. In rural Korea, pauperization and deactivation of agriculture were furthered for the recent 10 years. Prices of agricultural products became so low that continuing to farm was hardly worthwhile in many rural communities, so deactivation of agriculture has occurred. For some farm households, the social networks that sustain their livelihoods have been eroded. Because of severe decrease in population, many farm households lost access to another economic activity, so pauperization has occurred. Much of pluriactivities, to be exact, off-farm activities are media for farm families to participate in community. According to the structure of labour markets in the specific rural areas, those activities are limited or opened to farm households. In recent years, we can find vigorous collective actions in some rural communities such as community businesses, cooperative movements and various community development activities. Those activities can be regarded as endogenous rural development projects. And, in many cases, those activities appear as off-farm activities. Researchers: Kim Jeongseop, Oh Naewon, Kim Kyungin Research Period: 2016. 1. ~ 2016. 10. E-mail address: jskkjs@krei.re.kr |
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