농기계 임대·은행사업 운영기관 일원화 방안

Abstract

농업의 기술개발과 농산물 생산비용의 절감은 오랫동안 추구해온 농정의 추진과제이다. 농업의 세계화 추세 속에서 우리나라 농업은 노령화, 유류비 증대, 농산물 자급률 하락 등 소규모 영농환경에서 농가경영에 다양한 어려움에 직면하고 있다.

이러한 문제를 넘어서려는 과정에서 현재 운영 중인 농기계 임대·은행사업은 농기계 비용절감과 이용률 제고라는 목적의 동일성에도 불구하고 사업주체, 사업비 등의 운영 차이로 인해 여러 가지 문제들이 지적되고 있다. 특히 최근에는 사업의 지속적인 운영 문제가 대두되면서 최대 현안으로 부상되었다.

이에 따라 이 연구는 두 사업의 당면 문제점을 심층 분석하고 이해관계자들의 의견 수렴을 통해서 통합화에 대한 가능성을 검토함으로써 효율적인 정책 개선 방안을 제시하기 위해 수행되었다.

Government has a long-term plan to integrate government-driven agricultural machinery rental program and NACF-centered agricultural machinery bank program. The purpose of this research is to review the possibility of efficient integration and cooperation based on the division of labor for government-driven agricultural machinery rental program and NACF-centered agricultural machinery bank program through the analysis on the integration by one of the two program subjects, integrated split as a third sector and strategic alliance. The agricultural machinery rental program which has been implemented to date from the past has been running under chronic deficit operation due to low level of rentals and relatively excessive operating costs. And the issues such as the difficulty in responding to the demand for large-scale agricultural machineries and the increase of inconvenience for use by the residents from long distance were closed up as issues to solve. The agricultural machinery bank program has also been experiencing continuous difficulty in operation due to excessive initial investment costs and inappropriate level of fees and commissions appealing difficulties in the areas of temporary response to work consignment demand and the problems related to post control. As such, despite the objectives of the above two programs are the same toward the direction for saving the cost of using agricultural machineries, the complaints from farmers who are the users of the programs are increasing and the inefficiency of program operation is deepening due to the conflicts with the subjects of the programs in terms of program operation method and the funding of program costs. The result of research revealed that even if the objectives which two programs pursue are similar, the two programs showed big difference in the nature of organization and manpower, resources and program operation cost and management method and therefore the possibility of integration of the two programs were evaluated to be low. In case the two programs are integrated into one subject, sustainability of the programs will be judged to be difficult to guarantee. In case the programs are merged by the Agricultural Technology Center, there is possibility that farmers burden may be reduced as rentals will be relatively lower. However, there seems to be no big difference in the scope and size of the programs if the programs are integrated under the initiative of the Agricultural Technology Center. In case the programs are integrated taking regional NACF as a center, there will be advantages of enhancing farmers' satisfaction through diversified profitable businesses as well as the increase in convenience of use of the programs but there will be a disadvantage of increasing farmers' burden for rental(usage fee). If at all the integration has to be executed on compulsory basis, it is better from the farmers' position for the Agricultural Technology Center to merge the programs because the rental(usage fee) for agricultural machineries is lower while farmers can rent more variety of agricultural machineries which the Center is holding. However, in case regional NACF becomes the subject for the integration, farmers' burden is likely to be increased because of NACF's pursuit of profitability. On the other hand, the method of integration and split as a third sector for independent operation is not judged to be a realistic alternative because, in the case of split and integration, the possibility of continuous funding support by regional cooperatives and local governments will be very low. Especially in this case the public nature which agricultural machinery rental program and banking program pursue will not be guaranteed at all. As to the method of strategic alliance, farmers' think that cooperation may be possible from various areas but majority of working level managers of the programs had a perception that realistic strategic alliance might be difficult to accomplish. Accordingly, we can come to the conclusions as follows: First, it is desirable to operate current agricultural machinery rental program and agricultural machinery bank program independently. Second, if there is will for integration, it will be desirable to make decision on the type of program through the discussion among responsible local government officials in the region and the heads of regional cooperatives because regional characteristics and the degree of cooperation between the two programs are different each other. Third, if at all integration should be done, it will be desirable to make the Agricultural Technology Center as the subject of integration subject to strong government support in terms of the take-over of agricultural machineries by regional NACF. Fourth, in the case of maintaining current operation mechanism as they are, it will be desirable for the Agricultural Technology Center to establish a separate organization to comprehensively manage the programs for more efficiency in administration. And also it is suggested that regional NACF implement the pertinent program or business other than agricultural machinery bank program(such as vehicle and second-hand agricultural machinery program) by establishing an organization through joint investment. In order to unify the agricultural machinery rental program and agricultural machinery bank program together, wills of CEO's of the programs are important than anything else. Instead of compulsory integration of two programs which may have a number of adverse effects, the creation of conditions for voluntary mutual cooperation by the two programs will be able to make it possible to convert to new form of programs or business.

Researchers: Kang, Chang-Yong, Park, Hyun-Tae and Han, Hye-Sung Research period: 2012. 6. - 2012. 12. E-mail address: cykang@krei.re.kr.