신기술과 농업경영의 비전 사례연구

Abstract

미래 농업을 결정하는 중요한 요소 중의 하나가 연구개발(R&D)이다. 20세기의 농업은 첨단과학기술이 응용되는 ‘선진국형 산업’이라고 미래 학자들이 예견하였듯이, 금세기에 들어 ‘농업생명과학’이라는 용어가 보편화되고 있다. 우리나라가 녹색혁명을 이룬 대표적인 국가로 칭송받고 있는 것도 지금까지 기술혁신에 주력한 결과이다. 농업 분야의 연구개발 성과가 현장에서 가시화되려면 10년 이상이 소요된다고 하므로, 미래 농업을 위한 R&D 투자를 강화해야 할 것이다.

이 연구보고서는 농림부(현 농림수산식품부) 지원으로 개발된 신기술이 현장에서 활용되고 있는 몇 가지 사례에 대하여 신기술 수용의 과정과 경영 성과를 조사 분석하여 미래 농업의 비전을 제시하고, 농업기술 개발·보급의 활성화를 위한 방안을 모색하고자 수행한 것이다. 이 연구의 조사대상은 농림기술관리센터(ARPC)의 지원으로 대학에서 개발된 기술로서 현장에서 활용되고 있는 사례를 중심으로 한정하였다.

The agriculture of Korea is facing a great ordeal. While the financial balance is getting pressured from the surge in international prices of crops and petroleum, the progress of DDA agreement is rising as a new threat to Korean agriculture along with the Korea-US FTA signed last year. Just like the Korean proverb “look far whenever there is difficulty,” it is time to garner wisdom toward a mid- and long-term vision for agriculture. This study is comprised of largely five parts: first, the means of escaping the difficulties of Korean agriculture and new directions for technological innovation; second, the development of elevated-bench hydroponic cultivation of strawberries; third, direct seeding technology; fourth, TMR feed using improved barley; and lastly, the Korean cattle traceability system using RFID. According to the study, the means of escaping the difficulties of Korean agriculture are as follows: the promotion of the linkage between agriculture and food industry; development of new technologies by which IT, BT, NT can be applied in agriculture; development of marketing and management techniques which are urgently needed at farming sites; and the development of new technologies that can cope with the demand for eco-friendly technology. The study has found that the elevated-bench hydroponic system for strawberry cultivation can contribute greatly to the increase of farm household income since it is less labor intensive and favorable to expand the cultivation scale with higher output. It points out that it is difficult to sustain the strawberry cultivation by aged farmers because it is highly labor-intensive to manage and harvest. The study also found that the direct seeding culture of rice with herbicide application has many benefits since rice transplanting has many limitations due to lack of labor. The direct seeding has the possibility of expanding the cultivation scale through reduced labor and the possibility of increasing price and quality through increased productivity. The development of TMR feed using barley emerged in view of the fact that the increase in the international market prices of grains is directly related to the deterioration of farm management. The study suggested to reduce feed costs by adopting a barley TMR system. Finally, the study points out that since imported beef can illegally be distributed as Korean beef, thus raising public health risks, the cattle traceability system utilizing RFID technology is developed to efficiently manage tracked information of Korean cattle. The study finds that the traceability system can improve the business performance of livestock farms and stabilize the consumption of Korean beef as it facilitates the effective gathering of cattle tracking information combined with unique identification numbers at each beef production process. Researcher: Jeong-Ho Kim, Moon-Ho Park, Yean-Jung Kim E-mail Address: jhkim@krei.re.kr