The external conditions surrounding the Korean agriculture are worsening day by day. Free trade is expanding as a result of countries signing free trade agreements and there are daunting challenges facing the Korean agriculture, such as increasing instability of world grain prices, increasingly unstable supply of agricultural products due to climate change, and decreasing competitiveness of Korean agricultural products due to the depreciating yen. Internally, too, there are many difficulties, such as aging of farming population, worsening profitability due to rising operating costs, poor state of agricultural management, and lack of organized management.
These changes in external conditions and internal problems are highly likely to act as impediments to securing competitiveness in Korean agriculture. In order to respond effectively to the coming challenges of the future society and risk factors that arise from the uncertainty, it is important to examine the competitiveness of Korean agriculture and find ways to improve it. Therefore, there is a need to widen the scope of comparison (targets of comparison) in developing a comprehensive index and make comparisons by country, region, farm type and cultivated crop. In analyzing the comparisons, too, there is a need to take a more rational and scientific approach so that agriculture's characteristics can be considered.
The purpose of this study lies in presenting policy measures that can improve the agriculture's competitiveness by developing a competitiveness evaluation index that can regularly identify its state and changes by analyzing the relationships among the major factors that comprise agricultural competitiveness. In addition, it is also important to find industry sectors and export items that are competitive today or are highly likely to be competitive in the future.
According to the result of the study on National Agri-competitiveness Index(NAI), it was found that the Netherlands was ranked first among the OECD member countries, followed by the United States, Belgium, and Denmark. South Korea was ranked in the middle at the 17th place. As this is the case, it is necessary to restructure the institutional framework of Korean agriculture to increase its share and sales in the world market and, at the same time, continuously maintain and increase productivity in areas where the productivity is relatively high.
According to the results of the study on Regional Agri-competitiveness Index(RAI), it was found that the top ten regions that ranked high in the RAI, which is made up of four indices (scale, productivity, finance input, location quotient), are Jeju, Sangju, Uiseong, Gimje, Seogwipo, Haenam and Gyeongju (in that order). When seen from the weighted values reflected in the RAI, it was found that production scale and degree of concentration exert most influence on the total capability of a local agriculture. The reflected value of index is that the scale index was highest at 0.506, followed by the agricultural finance input index (0.316), the productivity index (0.09) and the location quotient index (0.08).
Farming-type Agri-competitiveness Index(FAI) was evaluated based on four indices (parity indices, agri-management balance, productivity, efficiency) and the results showed that in the case of farmers' terms of trade, vegetable farms have the most favorable terms of trade, followed by livestock farms, fruit farms and rice farms (in that order). As for the profitability index of farms, it was shown that fruit farms are most profitable, followed by vegetable farms, rice farms, and livestock farms (in that order). In the case of productivity, rice is analyzed to be most productive, followed by livestock, vegetables, and fruits. In the case of efficiency, rice farms are most efficient, followed by livestock farms, fruit farms, and vegetable farms. The total capability index was calculated by combining the subordinate indices and the results showed that rice farms have the highest farming capability (130.3), followed by vegetable farms (111.5), livestock farms (107.4), and fruit farms (107.0).
According to the analysis of National Commodity-competitiveness Index(NCI) with respect to rice, chili pepper, grapes, and beef, it was found that rice is most competitive, followed by chili pepper, grapes, and beef. The analysis results of major evaluation indices for the factors that contribute to product competitiveness showed that price competitiveness of Korean grapes is higher than those of Chile and the United States, but price competitiveness of rice, chili pepper, and beef is conspicuously lower than those of competitor countries. The analysis results of subordinate evaluation indices for product competitiveness showed that rice is most competitive, followed by chili pepper, grapes, and beef (in that order), which all showed higher competitiveness than those of competitor countries.
Based on the analysis results, the policy measures that are needed to strengthen agricultural competitiveness are presented as follows. First, in order to improve the competitiveness of agriculture at the national level, it is necessary to exert efforts to increase sales and market share in the world market. Second, in order to improve the competitiveness of agriculture at the regional level, it is necessary to restructure the policy support system for redressing the shortfalls by additionally taking into account the interrelationships among the indices related to the regional capability of agriculture. Third, it is necessary to establish a mid- and long-term support system to strengthen the competitiveness of regional agriculture at the national level and revamp the organization from production to distribution, marketing, and infrastructure together with various institutional improvements. Fourth, farmers' efforts to increase farm income and stabilize their management of farms are needed, in addition to a wide range of government policies, to increase farm income and stabilize farm management. To do so, it is necessary to firmly establish tailor-made policy programs that reflect various characteristics of different farms, but such policy should be based on a policy support system that enables farmers to choose appropriate programs that can meet their needs.

Researchers: Byoung-Hoon Lee, Yeong-Seok Yoon, Jong-Yeol Yoon, Joon-Kee Park, Seung-Ryong Yang
E-mail Address: bhlee@krei.re.kr