| dc.description.abstract | Background of Research
Korea's demand for livestock products has been increasing in response to income growth. And as a result, imports of feed grains have been steadily increasing and those imports are mostly GM crops. In a trend that acreage of GM crops increases all over the world, Korea also needs to keep pace with global flows through the development of GM crops for animal feed by enhancing the self-sufficiency rate. For that, it is needed to establish political countermeasures in accordance with the development and introduction of domestic GM animal feed by estimating potential economic feasibility, identifying development trends, and investigating management procedure in legal and regulatory systems in major countries.
This study aims to make further analysis for specific issues of the international grain market and run a world grain market web site. The first objective is to identify the status of the production of GM crops all around world, to analyze the impact of the introduction of GM crops on world grain supply and demand and prices, and to suggest the development of domestic GM crops and policy tasks for improving the self-sufficiency rate of grain through examining the awareness and acceptance of GM animal feed. The second objective is to respond to the changes of the environments in the grain market by providing information on the world grain market.
Method of Research
Considering that there are different opinions about GM crops, this study examines GM animal feed which includes maize, soybean, forage, etc.
This study implemented data collection, visiting agencies, and entrusted a manuscript in order to identify the status of production of GM crops and the domestic and foreign trends of technology development on them. This study carried out surveys targeting crop and livestock farms and consumers so as to investigate the awareness and acceptance of technology in the domestic GM animal feed. The consumer survey was implemented for 700 domestic consumers via Internet survey system in September 2015. And the producer survey was targeted to 683 crop farms and 106 livestock farms from August to September 2015 via postal questionnaires.
Research Results and Implications
This study reviews ex ante economic feasibility of GM rice in terms of demand and supply based on the precedent study. Also, it evaluates ex ante economic feasibility of domestic GM rice. The analysis results show that production cost per 10a for GM rice is 684,290 won, which is 5.2% lower than that of general rice. Considering yield effect, it estimates that production cost per 20kg will be 23,926 won in the case of 10% increase in yield, which means that production cost decreases by 13.8%. It also reveals that cost will decrease by 21.0% and 27% when 20% and 30% increase in yield, respectively. The results of analysis implicate that a substantial amount of time is needed to introduce the technology of GM rice production since the cost savings effect of production is not significant, and there is a considerable difference between the reduction effect of the production cost and producer's willingness to accept (WTA) for GM technology.
As domestic consumers have vague fear and negative recognition on GM crops, the basic direction of development of domestic GM crops should enable GM crops to more commercialize locally. And in order to minimize consumers' negative perception, there is a need to strengthen the safety management system.
As a policy task for developing domestic GM animal feed, this study indicates several proposals such as strengthening the foundation of research and development of GM crops, construction of the verification system, labeling system for building customer trust and the establishment of the monitoring system.
Firstly, in order to intensify the research base of GM crops, competitiveness should be raised through active investment and development in the public area and government and joint research between schools and businesses. For that, medium- and long-term R&D plans should be carried out in accordance with RDA (Rural Development Administration) and also need to extend R&D funds further. In addition, it is necessary to focus and select varieties with high technical skills through technical diagnostics under circumstances of limited financial resources.
Secondly, it is required to accomplish the research and verification system on GM crops for commercialization of GMOs. Korean consumers may suffer from lack of understanding of substantial equivalence for GM crops. And for this reason, only a few receive screening test. But, the difference between transformanant and non-transformanant occurs as time passes, hence many varieties should be examined. Moreover, the safety evaluation stage was frequently interrupted with genetic traits due to lack of the verification system. Therefore, time and manpower are being wasted.
Thirdly, considering various factors when developing domestic GM crops, commercial value should be improved. And it is needed to develop resistance to disasters and disease and insect pest to prepare for the impacts of climate change rather than simply raise the productivity. In addition, it is necessary to support continuous investment and efforts on R&D.
Finally, it is important to strengthen the labeling and monitoring system to build consumer confidence. Since Korean consumers have fear and negative recognition on GM crops, it is a top priority to secure trust on them. For doing this, it is important to establish the cost-effective labeling system for GM crops considering national burden and loss. Furthermore, it is needed to accomplish the practical and continuous monitoring system and prepare an investigation and countermeasures in case of emergency or risky situations.
Researchers: Sung Myunghwan, Huh Duk, Lee Dongso, Ji Seonu, Kim Seungkyu
Research Period: 2015. 1 ~ 2015. 12.
E-mail address: mhsung@krei.re.kr | - |
