Presentation on Agri-ecological innovation in Korea under Pillar 1.B. at the 12th OECD Rural Development Conference on Delivering Well-being, 24-26 September 2019, Seoul Korea. Presentation by Tae-Yeon Kim, Dept. of Environmental & Resources Economics, Dankook University. More information: https://www.oecd.org/rural/rural-development-conference/

1. 1
12TH OECD RURAL DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE
“DELIVERING WELL-BEING”
Tae-Yeon Kim
(tykim@dankook.ac.kr)
Dept of Environmental & Resource Economics
Dankook University
Pillar 1.b. innovation, Technological Change and Well-Being:
Rural Innovation Eco-systems and Restructuring Global Value Chains

2. 2
○ Rural well-being indicators :
 OECD, 2016, New Rural Policy: Linking up for growth
1. Introduction
 Environmental conditions : the most important factor for residents
 Jobs : the second factors
○ It means that the sustainable rural development :
 Stems from the inherent nature of rural regions
 Rural businesses must adapt to the regional characteristics
○ Rural productivity growth :
 Start from the environmental conservation and restoration
(agriculture)
 Accompanied by rural businesses start-up (non-agriculture)
 Linking agricultural conservation and non-agricultural activities !!!

3. 3
Increase in
rural environmental
Assets
Increase in
visitors & tourists
Activation of
economic activities
Increase in
Income of residents
Reinforce of
residents’awareness
about environmental
conservation
Increase in
incoming people
Enhancing
rural community
Enforcement
of Sustain
Rural Development
Strengthening
co-operation in
agri-production
processes
Restoration
& conservation
of agri-environment
 Agri-Env. and Sustain Rural Development Cycle

4. 2. A Pilot Project of Agri-Ecological Programme
 Title: A Pilot Project on the Improvement of Agricultural Direct Payment Scheme
 Activities : Implementation of the Agricultural Ecological Environment Program
- Food production, Agricultural ecology, Rural landscape
 Areas: Janghyeon village(Boryung), Hwaam village(Cheongyang)
 Period: 2016. 3 ∼ 2018. 2
 Budget: 300M won/year/village
 Payment rate: - Agreement with village and household separately
- Max. 3M won/year/household
 Results : - 129 households engaged out of 200 households in total
- Avg. 2.30M won/year/household
 Overview

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 The changes in farmers recognition on agri-ecological activities
Avg
in total
Before During End After F-value
(prob)2016, 2 2016.12 2018. 2 2018.12
Crop diversification 4.04 3.75c 4.11b 3.91cb 4.40a
16.38
(0.0001)
Pesticide-freecultivation 4.21 3.59b 4.39a 4.41a 4.41a
39.28
(0.0001)
Native seed cultivation 4.01 3.87 4.12 4.05 4.03
1.35
(0.2586)
Biodiversity in farm land 4.24 4.04c 4.34ab 4.17bc 4.44a
7.56
(0.0001)
Agri-ecological friendly cultivation 4.19 3.67c 4.39a 4.14a 4.53a
32.78
(0.0001)
Biodiversity in village 4.20 4.04b 4.22b 4.09b 4.46a
7.27
(0.0001)
Clean village environment 3.83 3.02b 3.24b 4.31a 4.41a
68.05
(0.0001)
Rural-urban linkage and direct
sale
2.86 2.81b 2.92ab 3.18a 2.49c
9.57
(0.0001)
Community identity 4.09 3.94b 3.96b 4.07b 4.31a
6.02
(0.0005)
○ Four point-in-time survey to farmers
 Before, during, end of the project implementation and the after the completion.
 Find out the improvement of farmers recognition on agri-ecology

6. 6
1) Along with the beginning of the project, the areas where farmers' awareness improves are
four areas:
 the variety of crops suitable for the season,
 the cultivation of crops without agricultural chemicals,
 the variety of living habitats on the rice fields,
 and the cultivation of agricultural ecological environment protection.
2) At the time of completion of the project, farmers' awareness is improved in the area of
establishing a clean village environment.
3) After the end of the project, farmers' awareness is improved in the areas of various
habitation for animal and plant in the village and the recognition of community identity.
4) Farmers' awareness that decreases after the end of the project is shown in the area of
exchanges between rural–urban and short supply chain management.
 Lessons learned
○ The changes in residents’ perception of agri-environment

7. 7
1) The policy for agri-environmental conservation should be launched with the
small farm households
2) Agricultural production methods can be altered by the change of the government
support system.
3) The experience of cooperative work may increase the community identity and
raise awareness of improving environment and landscape of the village
4) Government support need to concentrate on non-agricultural business because
rural – urban interaction and short supply chain would not be automatically
activated from the changes in agricultural production methods.
 Implication for Korean Agri-environmental Policy

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○ How to foster rural innovation?
3. Concluding remark for rural innovation
 It should begin with transforming agricultural production method into low-
input farming.
 Payments for the activities are needed for motivation
 It could be measured by the level of cooperative activities and
community identity.
○ How to measure innovation?
 To train expertise for rural environmental management
 To apply various non-farming businesses
- education, tourism, farm shop and restaurant, food-processing,
recreation, and so on.
 To facilitate easy access to farming land and rural areas.
○ How to spread out the outcomes?
○ It need to reinforce rural-urban linkage on regional level.

9. 9
Thanks for your attention!