The main purpose of this study is to survey a future of Korean agriculture and provide a vision of agricultural development of Saemangeum reclaimed area. To meet the end, the study examines the changing social-economic environment of Korean agriculture. This study establishes several principle of agricultural use of Saemangeum reclaimed land such as to harmonize national goal with region’s interest, to set a flexible development plan for future agricultural and non-agricultural land demand, and to gain international competitiveness with synergy of related fields and industries. With the principles, this study provides a development goal and vision of an agricultural land use of Saemangeum reclaimed land as a “pursuit of composite-agricultural complex with human, value, and environment”.
To fulfill established goal and vision, this study suggests basic planning of agricultural land uses. The first is to improve farms’ income with upbringing agribusiness clusters. The second is enhancing environmentally friendly agriculture with circulating agriculture. The third is to introduce ecology-environment supporting green tourism in the area.
This study presents several agricultural land use items for the area. The land use items are such as combined grain complex, circulating organic agriculture complex, horticulture complex, advanced agricultural research station, agribusiness cluster, agricultural theme park, villages, plant-nursing field, reservoir area, maritime ecological arboretum and so on. The study also shows necessary facilities, management plans, and economical efficiency of agricultural land use of each item
The ownership of the agricultural land in the Saemangeum area is suggested that mainly managed by government at the initial point. The government can maintain state-run farm or lease the land to individuals. To do so, the government tentatively introduces farmland-storing policy in Saemangeum area then lease or sells the land to who can maximize economic efficiency.
Tourist development and residence planning in the area also studied in this research. For tourist development, this study introduce an idea of “linking and a gap tourism” in the agricultural area. The main reason of introducing the idea is to reduce confliction between nearby sights and agricultural tourism. Also, residence planning in the agricultural area should be considered with the plan of urban residences. Currently, rural residences have a tendency of directly connect to urban cities.
It is important to mention that after the presidential election in the last year, the newly elected president announced a new approach toward the Saemangeum development. The announcement and a brand new development plan are affecting an existing development plans and the study outcomes. Also a new national agenda of “low-carbon green development” is adopted as a development strategy of the Saemangeum area. To effectively keep up with the changes and new development agenda, this study needs to reestablish a goal and vision of developing agricultural land use in the Saemangeum area, and provide new action plans.