농업·농촌 에너지 이용실태와 정책방안(1/2차연도)

Abstract

농업·농촌생활에서 에너지는 없어서는 안 되는 주요한 요소이다. 농산물을 생산하는 과정에서 노동력 부족을 농기계로 대체하고 있으며, 소비자의 니즈를 반영하여 저온저장고, 가공시설, 난방시설을 설치하여 계절성을 극복하고 있다. 농촌생활에서도 냉난방 기기설치, 온수, 취사, 조명 등에 에너지를 이용하고 있으나, 이에 대한 정확한 실태조사가 미미하다.

이 연구는 2년차 연구로 금년에는 1년차로 농업용‧농촌생활용 에너지 이용실태를 면밀히 조사하였다. 2년차에는 1년차 실태조사 결과를 이용하여 에너지 이용상 문제점을 해결할 수 있는 현실 적용 가능한 정책방안을 도출한다.

농산물을 생산하는 데 석유류가 57.2%로 가장 많이 이용되고, 전기가 35.0%, 석탄류가 7.7%이다. 용도별로는 농기계에 55.5%, 시설 및 축사 냉난방에 32.3%, 건물 및 사무실에 8.8% 순이다. 작물(축종)별로는 시설원예 작물에 냉난방용이 76.3%로 가장 많다. 대부분 시설채소, 화훼재배에 많이 사용하고 있다.

농촌 생활용 에너지는 난방하는 데 42.0%로 가장 많고, 온수 24.7%, 전기기기 19.0%, 취사 9.8% 순이다. 농촌 생활에서 난방은 석탄과 석유에 의존하는 경우가 많은데 석유 값의 상승은 농촌 주민의 생활에너지 비용 상승으로 직결되고 이는 농촌 주민들의 삶의 질에도 영향을 미친다.

Background of Research A Review on Energy Supply and Demand and Policy in Agriculture and Rural Communities The Korean government has managed the country's whole energy at national level, and is directly responsible for development and management of some energy resources. However, its energy policy for agriculture and rural communities is not sufficient. Energy policy on the level of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is extremely rare because a different ministry is responsible for the country's energy policy. Therefore, energy policy for agriculture, forestry and fisheries is required to be carried out, keeping pace with the country's whole energy policy.

The Current Status of Agricultural Energy Production and Consumption In agricultural production, innovative ways are required to save energy and to replace petroleum-based energy with non-petroleum-based energy. To seek the ways, it is necessary to study where, how much and how energy is being used to produce agricultural products, and to research and analyze the current status of energy use in the agriculture sector by source, purpose and crop(livestock). Tax-free oil and agricultural electricity for the agriculture sector have great influence on agricultural production. Hence, there is also a need to analyze how the two factors have a ripple effect on agricultural production and to review the government's policy direction toward them.

The Current Situation of Living Energy Use in Rural Area The living energy cost in rural areas is rising due to high oil prices and this has a lot of effect on the quality of life of rural residents. Even though various policies are implemented to address the energy issue at the national level, and many policy initiatives such as the energy independent village are being launched in rural areas, too, the effect has not been so satisfactory. Identification of problems through accurate investigation and analysis of the actual state of energy consumption and production in rural areas and presentation of mid- and long-term policy options are very important tasks for revitalizing rural areas and for setting up a direction for energy policy at the national level.

Method of Research A Review on Energy Supply and Demand and Policy in Agriculture and Rural Communities This study examines existing materials, conducts surveys, and analyzes the results of the surveys. The existing materials are secondary sources published by the government, relevant agencies and organizations. Survey materials are surveys of farmers and public officials related to energy.

The Current Status of Agricultural Energy Production and Consumption This study researches and analyzes the current status of energy consumption in agriculture and forestry. First of all, with regard to 283 items of standard incomes published by Korea's state-run Rural Development Administration, it collects original materials published between 2000 and 2012 and analyzes the status of energy use by item. Additionally, a survey of energy consumption in farm households and agriculture and forestry companies is conducted in twice. Finally, it carries out commissioned researches for inter-industry analysis, agricultural tax-free oil, analysis of energy supply and demand and energy input structure in the agriculture sector and rural communities, and reflects a diversity of views through consultation meetings with experts by field.

The Current Situation of Living Energy Use in Rural Area In this study, the criteria for identifying the current situation of energy consumption in rural areas and for finding research issues based on previous research are laid down. Next, the current situation is analyzed based on related statistics. A questionnaire survey was conducted nationwide among 1,000 households in rural areas in regard to household energy consumption. The factors of living energy consumption in rural areas are analyzed with a regression model based on the statistics data and survey results.

Research Results and Implications A Review on Energy Supply and Demand and Policy in Agriculture and Rural Communities The agriculture sector is required to take part in the country's energy management policy, since energy issues do not apply only to a single ministry. Nonetheless, the government has never published any objective data on which energy sources are being used in the agriculture sector and rural communities, and on where and how much they are being consumed. Farmers do not have high awareness of energy policy for agriculture and rural communities. The reason is that they consider other issues relatively more urgent. Especially, the importance of energy is low among agricultural issues. In fact, "energy" has never been emphasized in the sector so far. Their low awareness of energy may be an inevitable result. But they need to raise the awareness of energy, since the importance of energy will sharply increase day by day. There is a gap between channels for them to acquire information and methods for the government to spread information. Thus, the channels and the methods are required to be adjusted or rectified. In general, farmers have a low level of satisfaction with energy policy for agriculture and rural communities except for tax-free oil and agricultural electricity. Farmers who are aware of energy importance or participate in government-aided projects also do not make favorable assessments regarding the policy. Even some people hold critical opinions of a government-aided project to provide pellets and air source heat pumps. Public officials do not make positive assessments regarding energy policy for agriculture and rural communities, either. They say that government-aided projects do not live up to expectations in terms of efficiency even though they maintain validity and objectivity to some extent. Therefore, it is necessary to undertake an overall review on the contents or methods of the projects.

The Current Status of Agricultural Energy Production and Consumption Korea's total energy consumption increased by 3.2% on an annual average basis between 2000 and 2011. By contrast, the total energy consumption in the country's agriculture, forestry and fisheries decreased by 2.7% over the same period. The decrease in the use of energy in the agriculture sector was attributable to a decline in agricultural production activities driven by financial troubles that farm households faced in the aftermath of rising international oil prices. By energy source, the entire country's petroleum-based energy consumption accounts for 38.1% of the total energy consumption, whereas its agriculture's consumption of petroleum-based fuels and electricity accounts for 57.2% and 35.0% respectively. This explains that the two sources take a large portion of energy consumption in the agriculture sector. Among difficulties that farm households faced, rice farmers singled out the lack of tax-free oil supplies(52.4%) as the biggest challenge in terms of the use of agricultural energy, followed by high oil prices(23.9%). Vegetable farmers cited the lack of tax-free oil supplies(27.6%) as the most difficulty, followed by a heavy burden imposed by installation, replacement and maintenance costs of energy-efficient facilities(26.3%) and high oil prices(24.3%). Fruit farmers responded that the lack of tax-free oil supplies was the most challenging in regard to the energy use (33.3%). They also picked out a burden imposed by installation and maintenance costs of relevant facilities including energy-efficient low temperature warehouses(25.4%), followed by high energy consumption of low temperature warehouses (21.5%). Flower farmers presented a variety of problems rather than a single one. However, only 13.6% of the respondents indicated high electricity fees, which shows that they had a relatively lower level of complaints about electricity fees. The reason is that they use petroleum-based fuels as a main energy source rather than electricity. Unlike flower farmers, livestock farmers thought of not only a burden imposed by installation, replacement and maintenance costs of energy-efficient facilities(27.0%) but also high electricity fees(25.7%) as the most difficult problems because they used electricity as a main energy source.

The Current Situation of Living Energy Use in Rural Area The analysis results showed that the living energy consumption of households in rural counties accounts for about 7%, or 1,530,800 toe, of total household energy consumption nationwide. Even though the average household energy consumption in rural areas is less than that of cities, rural households are bearing a higher burden than city dwellers. The energy cost is relatively higher especially in the case of low-income elderly people in rural areas. For example, if we compare the energy expenditure per person between urban and rural households by income, the rural households with a monthly income of less than one million won paid ₩53,000 per month on average in 2011, which is the highest among the different income groups, whereas urban households with a monthly income of between ₩7 million and ₩8 million spent 37,381 won a month for energy, which is the least amount among all the income groups. Such a problem exists because rural residents have no other choice but to buy a relatively expensive energy source such as oil products. The energy production for household consumption is lacking in rural areas. According to this study, it is estimated that the production of renewable energy in rural areas does not reach 1% of the total energy consumption. The energy production for household consumption in rural areas can be said to have been driven by the government's renewable energy policy, but it is evaluated that its investment effect on energy independence in rural areas is low. In particular, there is a high likelihood that the maintenance and management cost of large facilities initiated by the government would put a burden on the residents. However, the rural residents' awareness of the need to switch the energy source is high and various efforts are made voluntarily to reduce energy consumption in rural areas. If the residents' efforts are well coordinated with the government policy, then energy can be saved more effectively in rural areas. The searching for answers to this issue will be conducted in the second year of this study.

Researchers: Yean-Jung Kim, Si-Hyun Park, Chang-Yong Kang, Jong-Jin Kim, Jae-Hun Sim, Hye-Sung Han, Dong-Hyun Moon, Research Period: 2013. 1 ～ 2013. 12 E-mail address: yjkim@krei.re.kr