농가의 경제사회적 성격변화와 전망

Abstract

가족농(family farm)은 자유민주주의 경제체제의 이상적인 농업경영 형태로 발전하여 왔으며, 선진국들의 공통적인 인식은 지금까지와 마찬가지로 앞으로도 가족농이 상당 기간에 걸쳐 농업을 담당해야 한다는 것이다. 이러한 배경으로 세계무역기구(WTO)의 농업협상에서도 가족농 보호가 중요한 쟁점이 되고 있으며, 각국마다 다양한 정책수단을 구사하면서 가족농의 유지에 부심하고 있다고 해도 과언이 아니다. 우리나라는 1950년대의 농지개혁을 통해 자작농을 창설하였으나, 그간의 산업화 과정에서 농업경영체로서의 성격이 변질되는 과정을 겪어 왔다. 경영주의 고령화에 따라 농지임대나 위탁영농이 증가해 온 반면에 전업농은 후계자 부족으로 경영의 존속 문제가 심각한 상황에 이르렀다. 또한 1990년대 들어 중농층이 분해되면서 영세농의 증가와 아울러 농업생산이 대농 층으로 집중되는 양극화 경향이 뚜렷하게 나타나고 있다. 앞으로 농산물 시장개방의 진전에 따라 농업경영의 규모화 및 전문화로 특징지어지는 농업구조조정은 지속적으로 진행될 것이며, 동시에 농가의 인력 구조나 경영체 성격도 빠르게 변화할 것으로 예상된다. 따라서 현재의 농가가 어떠한 상태에 있으며 앞으로 어떻게 변화할 것인지를 분석하고 전망하는 것은 농업인력과 경영체의 육성 및 농업구조정책의 방향을 설정하는 데 중요한 과제가 될 것이다. 이 연구는 우리나라 농가의 경제사회적 성격과 경영구조의 최근 동향을 분석하고 앞으로의 변화를 전망하는 데 주된 목적이 있다. 구체적으로 가족농의 동태적 변화에 대하여 이론적으로 검토하고, 통계자료 분석과 현장 사례조사를 통하여 농가에 대한 현재의 실태와 미래의 변화를 전망하며, 이를 토대로 농가 육성 및 농업구조정책의 개선을 위한 정책적인 시사점을 도출하고자 하였다.

This study aims to analyze the socio-economic characteristics and the management structure of farm households and project future changes. In particular, it theoretically reviews the dynamic changes of family farms, depicting the actual state and projecting future changes using statistical data and an actual case study on the basis of which we drew political implications to improve the size and quality of farm households and government policies on agricultural structure. As a result of the industrial progress worldwide and social changes such as aging, the role and size of family farming is decreasing. Nevertheless, industrialized countries are recognizing the importance of family farming, setting up various policies more than ever. The characteristics of a Korean farm household as an agricultural management unit are becoming weaker. First, family structure has become fragile by aging and atomized family. The average number of farm family members decreased to 2.7 persons per farm household in 2005 from 6 in 1960. As a result, one-generation households and one-person households became a main stream. The rate of households having a farming successor sharply declined to 3.5% in 2005 from 16.4% in 1990. The farmland area per farming household has been increasing as the number of farming households decreased at a much more faster pace than the relatively slower decline in cultivated lands. Specifically, since the mid-1990s, agricultural resources such as land and livestock have been concentrated on large farming households. For that reason, the expansion in farming scale quickly spread while the rest small farms operated by old farmers remained stagnant. According to the 2005 Agriculture Census, the rate of farming households under 0.5ha stood at 37.3% (470,000 farming households) and the rate of farming households run by farmers aged over 65 years was 48%. Problems related to small and old-age farming households are serious and policies to resolve these problems are urgent. Specialization of agricultural management can be explained in terms of labor and farming types. By labor types, the rate of full-time farming has been increasing since 1996 while the part-time farming where agricultural income is more than non-farm income has been decreasing. By farming types, staple cultivation was at the center of Korean agriculture up to the late 1970s and cash-crop productions began from 1980 onward. At present, the growth trend of income from livestock, specialty crops, and floriculture is being reversed by the cultivation of income-stable rice, fruit, and vegetables. As stated above, the characteristics of farming households as agricultural management entities have weakened and the succession of their sustainable management is not clear due to the lack of successors and farmers newly starting an agricultural management. Also, the vitality of rural society fell sharply because old and small farming households have become the center of rural region. From now on, the focus of agricultural policy has to be changed from family farming households to various agricultural management entities. It is necessary to set up customized agricultural policies and foster sound family farming households. To accomplish customized agricultural policies, it is important to transform the `farming household registration system' into an `agricultural management registration system.' A retirement system for agricultural management and a social security system for old farmers will have to be set up. Also, it is important to foster local agricultural organizations to assist farming households and make full use of local agricultural resources and circumstances.

Researchers: Kim Jeong-Ho, Park Moon-Ho, Lee Young-Ho E-mail address: jhkim@krei.re.kr