도시농업의 비전과 과제

Abstract

도시민의 농업참여가 활발해지고 있다. 이러한 현상에 대응하여 도시민의 농업참여 실태를 파악하여 농업에 기대하는 바람직한 비전과 이를 실현하는 방안을 제시하는 것이 이 연구의 목적이다. 도시지역에서 다양한 형태로 전개되는 농업은 다원적 기능을 발휘하고 있다. 즉 신선하고 안전한 농산물을 공급하는 역할을 비롯하여, 체험이나 학습 기회를 제공하고, 경관을 형성하면서 환경을 보전하고, 생물다양성을 유지하면서 이산화탄소를 저감하는 등의 역할이 높게 평가되고 있다. 그러나 도시농업은 고지가, 농지 전용, 농지 임대차 등에 의한 경영불안을 안고 있다. 또한 환경 규제 등에 의해 생산비가 인상되거나 농업경영을 제약하는 것도 도시농업이 가지는 문제점이다. 이용자가 급증하고 있는 텃밭농원에 대해서는 공급이 부족하고, 세면장이나 휴게시설, 주차장 등과 같은 시설이 미비한 점도 문제다. 도시농업이 활성화되기 위해서는 우선 농지와 관련한 경영불안 요인이 해결되어야 할 것이다. 편의시설을 갖춘 텃밭농원이 충분히 제공되어야 한다. 그리고 소비자와 생산자간의 교류와 직거래 등을 통한 신선하고 안전한 농산물을 안정적으로 거래하는 것이 기반이 조성되어야 한다. 이를 위해 국가는 도시농업기본법을 제정하여 지원이나 규제에 관한 근거를 마련하고, 지자체는 관련 조례를 제정하여 지역실정에 신축적으로 대응함으로써 도시농업의 발전을 보장하여 도시와 농업이 상생하는 새로운 길이 될 수 있다.

The participation of urban residents in agricultural activities is spreading. Some of those activities are exemplified by growing vegetables or flowers in kitchen gardens or homes along with experiencing agriculture in the form of tourism agriculture or working on an educational farm. The joy of farming obtained from repeating such activities increases the understanding on agriculture. Furthermore, the number of cases of such activities develop into direct transactions or exchanges is increasing. However, urban agriculture has a chronic problem of securing farming land, resulting from the increase of land price. The insecurity in management resulting from the diversion of farmland or farmland lease also remains an universal problem of urban agriculture. The increase of the production cost due to environmental regulations is also a problem of urban agriculture, which restricts the range of agricultural management. For such reason, it is necessary to promote a sound development of urban agriculture to cope with the increasing agricultural demand of urban residents. The purpose of this study is to propose solutions capable of shaping favorable urban environments by virtue of providing urban residents with various chances of urban activities in consonant with promoting urban agriculture as an industry after identifying the current status of urban agriculture, the expected role of urban residents on agriculture, etc. The main contents of this study comprise the followings: The first is to define the overall concept of urban agriculture from the spatial and a participating party's point of views in consideration of the current situations, roles, urban residents' expectations on agriculture, value evaluation, overseas cases, etc. The second is to propose a solution against the problems and characteristics which may arise from identifying the current status of kitchen gardens and agriculture, as an industry existing in urban area. The third is an application to the establishment of a vision by means of analyzing the amount that consumers are willing to pay for various functions of urban agriculture along with their intention with respect to urban residents' agriculture as the ground for establishing the vision and identifying the problems in urban agriculture. The required elements, as the tasks for revitalizing urban agriculture, are as follows: As there are clear constraints in terms of expanding farmland ownership due to the insecurity of management related to farmland and high land price, it is necessary to review the idea of establishing 'agricultural areas' in the urban planning system as areas to be preserved in the long-term basis by securing farmland in urban areas. In general, consumers may be able to establish a system called 'the agriculture supported by citizens' by means of financial supports including volunteering for agricultural works. The stable transactions of fresh and safe agricultural products via the expansion of direct transactions and exchanges between consumers and producers may become an important means that will make cities and agriculture prosperous at the same time. In order for urban agriculture to provide urban residents with sufficient services, new roles for the government and urban residents are required. In other words, active participation of consumers on the ground of the perception that 'agricultural facilities are necessary for cities' is perforce. To promote urban agriculture in a more systematic way so as to achieve such goals, it is required for the government to establish 'the Fundamental Law of Urban Agriculture' for the purpose of laying the foundation of supporting urban agriculture or regulations, and the local authorities have to prepare for issuing necessary ordinances to meet the demand of consumers or local circumstances.

Researchers: Kim, Tae-Gon, Park, Moon-Ho and Heo, Joo-Nyung E-mail address: taegon@krei.re.kr