농업용수의 공급·수요 특성과 정책과제

Abstract

최근 국내 ‘물기본법’ 제정 움직임과 함께 물의 효율적이고 통합적인 관리 및 사용에 대한 관심이 높아지고 있다. 통합적 물관리는 물산업 육성과 함께 국제적으로도 많은 관심을 받고 있는 주제로, 이는 1992년 더블린 원칙에서 용수의 희소성 및 잘못된 이용이 지속가능한 발전을 저해한다고 강조한 것에서부터 최근 OECD에서 향후 용수 개발 여건이 악화되고 농업과 비농업 부문 간 용수 경쟁이 심화될 것으로 예측하는 것에서도 드러난다.

특히 농업 생산에서 농업용수는 필수 투입요소로 농작물 생산량과 직결되어 농민 소득에 직접적인 영향을 주는 생산요소이다. 농업용수 시장이 존재하는 미국과 호주와는 다르게 한국은 농업용수 시장이 부재하며 정책적으로 대부분의 농업인이 사용하는 농업용수에 대한 이용료가 면제되고 있어서 농업용수의 특성을 실증적으로 분석하는 것에 많은 제약을 가지고 있다. 이 연구는 농업용수의 특성을 경제학적으로 분석하기 위한 분석방법과 가용 자료를 살펴보고 향후 예상되는 분석 결과에 대응하는 정책 시사점을 제시하는 것을 목적으로 한다.

This study introduces the attributes of agricultural water as an economic commodity, characteristics of agricultural water supply and demand, methodologies to estimate these characteristics, and policy implications related to the predicted results of empirical studies applying the methodologies. There have not existed the consistent and objective legal system to solve the water conflicts between the agricultural sector and others, or conflicts inside the agricultural sub-sectors, and previous studies analyzing the economic characteristics of agricultural water are limited. The empirical studies about the agricultural water supply and demand based on the agreement of experts and stakeholders inside/outside the agriculture industry will help to resolve expected water conflicts as well as prepare for the future droughts in agricultural land. These efforts to collect relative data sets and construct feasible empirical economic models should be considered when discussing and enacting “Water Law” or similar integrated water management systems. Analysis of agricultural water supply characteristics is based on the production theory to estimate marginal and average costs of the water supply. The information about the marginal and average costs is closely related to pricing the agricultural water and charging systems. Korean agricultural water suppliers are currently the Korea Rural Community Corporation and municipal governments with market power, and whether or not this structure is like a natural monopoly is another issue to analyze. Analysis of agricultural water demand can be conducted by estimating a production function and derived water demand function, applying the mathematical programming method, the general equilibrium model, and various evaluation methods, and it is important to choose an appropriate methodology in the context of study purposes and targets. The empirical application of economic methodologies to agricultural water supply and demand characteristics will be possible after checking the currently available data sets and how to complement them or generate additional data sets. In addition, is needed to discuss how to construct the economic estimating models such as the general equilibrium model in the long-run and necessity of the integrated council such as “Agricultural Water Council.”

Researchers: Lim Youngah, Kim Hongsang Research period: 2015. 6. ∼ 2015. 11. E-mail address: limy@krei.re.kr