진안군 친환경농업 육성 중장기 계획 수립

Abstract

For the effective implementation of environment-friendly agriculture in Jinan-Gun, it is essential to establish a feasible development plan and continue to promote it in stages based on local agricultural environments and opinions of farmers who practice environment-friendly agriculture, regional government officials, and responsible authorities. The objective of this study is to establish a master plan based on a systematic and strategic approach to implement a sound environment-friendly agriculture in Jinan-Gun. The scope of the study covers all areas in Jinan-Gun (1 town, 10 villages) for a project period of 5 years from 2007 to 2011 with 2005 as the reference year. The study has been carried out using related documents such as national and local census, a survey of farmers, interviews with regional government officials, an analytical model to estimate investment and check farmland nutrient balance, and the opinions collected by a number of administrative committees, etc. To establish the plan for environment-friendly agriculture in Jinan-Gun, we conducted a survey to collect opinions of both the conventional farmers who intend to practice environment-friendly agriculture in the future and those who currently operate environment-friendly farms. According to the results of the survey, it was found that most farmers who practice environment-friendly farming have a strong voluntary will to manage environment conservation and lead a healthy life, providing safe agricultural products to consumers. The questionnaires asking about who should lead environment-friendly agriculture showed that most farmers wanted farmer associations to play the leading role while the central and local governments provide only the necessary supports rather than implement the environment-friendly agriculture. Most difficulties faced by conventional farms in converting to environment-friendly agriculture were concentrated on technical matters, such as weeding, the prevention of harmful insects, etc., while the biggest difficulty was the ensuring of stable sales channels for their environment-friendly products. It was strongly suggested that ‘acts to promote environment-friendly agriculture’ is essential for the continued and effective promotion of environment-friendly agriculture in the county. The vision of environment-friendly agriculture in Jinan-Gun was identified as the improvement of the life quality of the people as well as the residents through the harmonization of agriculture and the environment. That is, the environment-friendly agriculture aims to maintain the environment clean and beautiful and promote biological industries for national land management. At the same time, it seeks to provide safe foods by managing and preserving the environment at low costs. A systematic and stepwise promotion plan for environment-friendly agriculture should be established to achieve this vision. The plan is divided into three stages: infrastructure construction stage (2007-2008), take-off stage (2009-2011), and sustainable development stage (2012-2020) with the overall long-term plan targeted at 2020. A road map, which includes detailed action programs, was presented. The key projects include the education and training of human resources for the building of environment-friendly infrastructure and the construction of an information system to manage agricultural resources. This study also suggests a program to support the production of environment-friendly products and a private sub-program to practice resource-recycling agriculture. In addition, other plans for environment-friendly agriculture are included in the report with respect to the following issues: creation of markets for environment-friendly products; activation of logistics; promotion of environment-friendly agricultural complexes; legal and institutional improvement; organization of producer entities; responsibility sharing and coordination among involved parties; and the estimation of budget needed to convert into a sound environment-friendly agricultural system. Trend-setting ideas and significant budget investments are required to establish a sound environment-friendly agricultural system in Jinan-Gun. An appropriate sharing of responsibilities among concerned parties, including farmers, politicians, consumers, and the National Agricultural Cooperative Foundation, etc., is essential to realize environment-friendly agriculture as the growth engine of future agriculture. Researchers: Chang-Gil Kim, Tae-Young Kim, Yong-Kwang Shin, Sang-Gun Lee Research period: 2006. 12. - 2007. 4. E-mail address: changgil@krei.re.kr