Agriculture in South Korea

Agriculture in South Korea is a sector of the economy of South Korea. Korean agriculture is the basic industry of the Korean economy, consisting of farming, animal husbandry, forestry and fishing. At the time of its founding, Korea was a typical agricultural country, with more than 80% of the population engaged in agricultural production. After land reform under the Lee Seung-man administration, economic revitalization under the Park Chung-hee military government and the wave of world trade liberalization that began in the 1980s, Korean agriculture has undergone dramatic changes. Through the Green Revolution, Korea became self-sufficient in rice, the staple food, in 1978, and in 1996, Korea became the first Asian country after Japan to mechanize its agriculture with fine-grained cultivation. The development of Korean agriculture has also led to the development of agriculture-related industries such as fertilizer, agricultural machinery and seed.

The natural resources required for agriculture in South Korea are not abundant. Two thirds of the country are mountain and hill. Arable land only accounts for 22 percent of the country's land. It is one of the countries with the least arable land per capita in the world. Korea has a very low self-sufficiency rate for agricultural products, except for rice and potatoes, which are largely self-sufficient, while 85% of other foodstuffs need to be imported. In addition, Korea imports more than 60% of its beef, fish and shellfish, 20% of its fruit, poultry and milk from abroad, and only sugar and eggs are self-sufficient. Since the 1980s, with the restructuring of Korean agriculture, the area of food crops has tended to decrease, while the area of high value-added crops, vegetables and fruits has increased in proportion to the plantation industry. The most important crop in South Korea is rice, accounting for about 90 percent of the country's total grain production and over 40 percent of farm income. Other grain products heavily rely on imports from other countries. Farms range in size from small, family-owned farms to large corporations, but most are small-scale and rely heavily on government support and services in order to survive.

In the 1960s, Korea's economy began to grow at a rapid pace, creating the "Han River Miracle". In 2005, the share of agriculture in Korea's GDP fell to 2.9 percent from 50 percent at the start of the country's history. With urbanization and industrialization, Korea's agricultural population has been lost and is ageing, with the proportion of people employed in agriculture falling from 50% to 8.5% between 1970 and 2000, and to 7% in 2008.