농업‧농촌에 대한 2018년 국민의식 조사 결과

Abstract

2018년 우리 농업계를 돌아보면 봄철 저온, 여름철 기록적인 폭염과 가뭄 등 기상이변으로 농산물 수급이 불안정하였고, 쌀 목표가격 설정과 직접지불제 개편 논의 등 농업을 둘러싼 내부 환경변화가 컸다. 대외적으로는 한·미 FTA 재협상, 미·중 무역 분쟁, 국제유가의 변동 등 불확실성도 증가했던 한 해였다.

이런 가운데 정부는 재해지원 확대, 가축질병의 선제적 대응, 스마트팜 확산, 청년농 육성, 생산단계의 식품 안전성 제고 등 다양한 정책을 추진하였으며, 쌀값 회복, 가축질병 발생의 감소, 귀농·귀촌 및 청년농의 증가 등 성과를 나타내기도 하였다.

한국농촌경제연구원은 2006년 도시민까지 포함한 의식조사를 실시한 이래 정부정책 성과의 체감, 현장의 정책수요 등에서 기여해 왔다. 2018년에 ‘농업‧농촌에 대한 국민의식 조사’는 국민들의 농업‧농촌에 대한 의식변화와 농산물 시장개방 확대에 따른 소비심리 변화, 농업 관련 현안들에 대한 견해를 파악하고자 하였다. 조사 결과는 연구과제 선정과 연구수행에 참고하고, 농업‧농촌에 대한 국민적 공감대 확산을 위한 여론 형성과 정책지원 활동에도 활용할 계획이다.

조사는 2018년 11월 24일부터 12월 14일까지 실시하였으며, 도시민 1,500명과 농업인 1,259명 등 국민 2,759명이 참여하였다.

이 보고서에는 도시민과 농업인의 다양한 정책 건의와 농업‧농촌 발전을 위한 제언도 함께 수록하였다.

The result of the 2018 Public Opinion Survey on Agriculture and Rural Areas shows that many people think agriculture and rural areas are important and have an affection for them. However, while 85.5% of urban people think agriculture and rural areas important, 52.2% of urban people have an affection for them, showing a large difference of 33.3 percentage points. For urban people to recognize the importance of agriculture and rural areas and thereby have an affection for them, various efforts are needed, including experience, promotion, and education. Both farmers and urban people highly evaluated the public value of agriculture and rural areas. Nevertheless, only 53% of urban people were in favor of paying additional tax to maintain and preserve the value. Both farmers (73.1%) and urban people (81.5%) pointed out "stable supply of food" as the most important role of agriculture and rural areas in the present. Nonetheless, as for the future roles, the respondents expected the relative importance of "stable supply of food" would decrease and that the improvement of food safety and regional vitalization would become more important. Farmers and urban people showed the difference in satisfaction with the residential or living environment of their current place of residence: while 33.6% of farmers were satisfied, 54.7% of urban people were satisfied. The level of farmers' self-rated quality of life was also lower than that of urban people's. On the other hand, 47.8% of urban people were in favor of increasing the budget for rural welfare. This figure was higher than the opposite opinion. Among urban people, 31.3% had an intention to return to farming or rural areas for rural and free life. However, many respondents answered that they did not have any concrete plan yet. On the other hand, urban people pointed out inconvenience in the labor and settlement environment as the reason for no intention to return to farming or rural areas. Thus, to promote urban-to-rural migration, it is necessary to provide professional education for urban people's settlement in rural areas as farmers, and to improve settlement conditions. Urban people were more positive about the recent rise in urban-to-rural migrants than farmers. Farmers were more positive about the increase in young people's urban-to-rural migration than about the growth of the total urban-to-rural migrants. This seems to show that farmers are concerned about labor shortage due to aging and the lack of agricultural successors. On the other hand, 30% of farmers were negative about the increase in urban-to-rural migrants because of conflicts and disharmony with existing residents. Therefore, it is needed to provide urban-to-rural migrants with prior training on communication with existing residents and on conflict management. Overall, both urban people and farmers responded that the safety and competitiveness of domestic agricultural products were high. Nevertheless, on the purchase of domestic and imported agricultural products, the following response accounted for the highest proportion and is increasing gradually: "I will purchase imported agricultural products if domestic ones are much more expensive." This result implies the need to secure the quality competitiveness and price competitiveness of domestic agricultural products. Although farmers' overall job satisfaction improved compared to 2017, still the percentage of dissatisfaction was relatively high. The biggest reason for dissatisfaction was "low income for efforts." Also, farmers pointed out "labor shortage due to the decrease and aging of the rural population" as the biggest factor threatening farm management. Therefore, in terms of policy support, it is necessary to stabilize the prices of agricultural products and farmers' income, and secure the workforce by increasing urban-to-rural migration and fostering young farmers. Concerning satisfaction with the present rural life, the percentage of satisfied farmers was much higher than that of dissatisfied farmers. Nonetheless, the survey result shows that farmers' physical health conditions are not good, and their health management is insufficient. Thus, it is needed to enable farmers to check and manage their health by improving the accessibility of medical care and transportation in rural areas.

Researchers: Song Seonghwan and Park Hyejin Research period: 2018. 1. ~ 2018. 12. E-mail address: song9370@krei.re.kr, frog78@krei.re.kr