Small but strong farmers

"As everybody moves to the cities, rural villages are lonely. Then the villages cry. Don`t cry, rural villages." A sixth grader wrote this in her poem many years ago when Kim Yong-taek, a poet and teacher, was teaching at a branch school in a rural village in North Jeolla Province. Beginning with just 18 students 12 years ago, the branch school was promoted to an elementary school with four classrooms in 2005. Last year, the number of the classrooms increased to six in view of increased enrollment, including students whose families moved to the rural village from cities. Novelist Kim Hoon once stopped by the school on his bicycling trip. When he visited it again 10 years later, he was so pleased to see a small rural branch school promoted to a full elementary school.

If rural villages are to prosper, they require money-making businesses. Rather than being overwhelmed by a sense of defeat at the news of free trade agreements, they should feel confident over having greater markets. Graduates from the Korea National College of Agriculture and Fisheries, which opened in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province in 1997, are playing a leading role in increasing the incomes of farming households. Of the graduates, 2,089 engaged in farming earned an average annual income of 65.16 million won (56,834 U.S. dollars) last year, higher than the average annual salary of 61.95 million won (54,034 dollars) for employees at Korea`s 100 largest corporations in sales revenue.

The Korea Venture Agriculture College, which was founded in 2001 by Min Seung-kyu, the head of the Rural Development Administration, is also dreaming of nurturing "small but strong farmers." Some 2,000 of its graduates are cultivating high value-added crops, developing brands for farming products or making joint marketing efforts for their products. Under the slogan, "We decline government support," the college promotes venture farmers to exchange information and business ideas. "We can take the lead in the world`s third Agricultural Revolution by combining our farming technology, which is the world`s seventh most advanced, with our cutting-edge IT, biotechnology and culture and arts, Min said.

Many urban workers have tried farming once in rural villages. Numerous others are going to rural villages to make a living by trying distribution or marketing of agricultural products rather than doing the farming themselves. A source at Cheonan Yonam College warns that 90 percent of those who go to rural villages without thorough preparation fail. He advises that those eyeing moving to rural towns prepare for the change for at least three years and bond with town residents in advance. The once deserted agricultural industry is turning into a sector of hope due to increases in national income and heightened interest in quality of life.

Editorial Writer Hong Kwon-hee (konihong@donga.com)