Smart Farm Policy in Korea

 

Promotion process of smart farm policy
 

The Smart Farm government policy started with the rapid opening of the oversea market opening with trading economies such as the US and the EU and the greenhouse aging has progressed rapidly. In the agricultural sector, since 2004, R & D for agricultural and ICT convergence has expanded and begun to pursue various policies as follows.
 

During the period of 2004 and 2009, the government carried out the ‘u-Farm’ leading business and successfully operated 25 models. Through this project, Korea achieved visible results that confirmed the possibility of integrating agricultural technology and IT technology such as implementation of optimum growth conditions using sensor and traceability system using electronic tag.  The most popular field of model development is facility horticulture, and some items such as tomato and paprika have reached an advanced technological level. In the livestock sector, core facilities and operation models such as feed automatic feeding system, especially pig farming, have entered the field application stage. In addition, in order to enhance international competitiveness, the facility modernization project was fully endorsed when the Korea-US FTA was concluded in 2007 as a part of the domestic supplementary measures in the agricultural sector. An investment fund of 500 billion won for 10 years (2008 ~ 2017) on the modernization of the vinyl greenhouse and the like. As a result, the smart farm models that can be spread to agriculture field has been established with the support of R&D related to agriculture and ICT fusion complex, and the government has begun to focus on agriculture 's smartization since 2013. As a part of the policy, the government has established measures to disseminate agro-food ICT fusion, diagnosed the ICT convergence status by sectors such as production, distribution and consumption, and set a clear direction in promoting smart farm distribution, R&D and industrial environment.
 

Smart farm policy objectives and directions
 

The government's Smart Farm policy has multiple goal. First, by expanding smart farm adoption and improving productivity of smart farm farmers, the government aims to establish smart farms to a total of 4,000ha of facility horticulture (40% of facility modernization area), 700 livestock farms (10% of full-time farmers), and 600 fruit farms (25% of scale farms) by 2017. Specifically, the government plans to upgrade our global competitiveness by upgrading 600ha of glass greenhouses centered on paprika, tomatoes, and flowers, which are items of strategic importance for export. The livestock sector plans to gradually develop models for poultry and cattle, gradually expanding to 700, which is 10% of livestock farming industry. The non-agricultural sector plans to expand to more than 600 hectares, which is 25% of farmhouses (2,582 farms) with more than 1.5 million hectares of farm products and sales of farm products of more than 100 million won. Second, it will create a virtuous cycle ecosystem in which related industries develop simultaneously based on government investment and market expansion for smart farms. To this end, the government plans to support the establishment of facilities such as facility installation, which will lead to the expansion of the market so that the competitiveness of the related companies can be enhanced and the industry can enhance to the export industry.
 

The government's smart farm policy direction is as follows: First, it will promote the facility modernization project and smart farm promotion, expanding the foundation for the introduction of ICT convergence facilities and easing the investment burden on farmers. Second, it aims to encourage farmers to voluntarily introduce smart farms by objectively analyzing and promoting productivity improvements and reductions in labor force resulting from the adoption of smart farms. Third, localize and standardize the core parts and technologies of smart farm such as related equipment and growth management, and make and distribute Korean smart farm model that suits our agricultural environment and conditions. Fourth, farmers and related personnel will have the ability to utilize ICT and specialize in small items to support 100% of the benefits of smart farms in the field. In addition, it supports the core functions such as A / S, which are necessary for farmers but cannot be met by the government, at the government level, thereby solving the difficulties of the farmers and establishing a platform for the related companies to grow.
 

Smart farm supply situation
 

ICT usage of facilities
 

The scale of ICT adoption by all agricultural facilities in Korea is still very low. According to the result of survey on the status of registered facilities in agriculture management (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Livestock, 2015), the number of farms in ICT facilities is 2,625, which is only 1.7% of farms in total facilities. The area of ICT introduction facilities is 1,258ha.


 

By type of ICT facility, vinyl is the highest at 85.5%, followed by glass greenhouse at 9.3%, cultivator at 3.9% and hard plate at 1.4%. Of the total greenhouses, ICT installed glass greenhouses account for 35.4%, while vinyl greenhouses are only 1.6%. Considering the relatively high crop productivity of greenhouses, farmhouses with greenhouses have farmhouses with vinyl greenhouses It is considered that there is a great incentive to introduce ICT facilities.



The proportion of introduction of ICT facilities compared to the total facility area by province is very low, less than 4.0% of both land area and number of farm households. Smart farm penetration rate compared to facility cultivation in Gangwon area is 2.0% and 1.7% in terms of area and farm households, respectively, which is similar to the national average. On the other hand, the share of smart farms by region is the highest in Gyeongbuk area (19.3%) and farm household number (21.7%). Gangwon area occupies 4.8% of area and 10.4% of farms. However, the area of smart farm cultivation in Gangwon area is significantly lower than the national average of 48%, suggesting policy efforts to expand the production base of Smart Farm in the future.



The smart farm level of facility horticulture can be classified into advanced type (upper), combined management (middle), and simple management (lower). Advanced smart farms are being introduced into export horticulture production facilities with a facility size of more than 1 ha, including complex environmental management and renewable energy facilities. In the case of complex management, it is spreading to general horticultural facilities of 0.5 ~ 1ha size interlocking type, and ICT is used to control complex environment management and energy saving. Simple management is introduced in small facilities of less than 0.5ha, and ICT is used to control the growth conditions such as ventilation, warming, and heating. The main items are melon and watermelon, and they use 100% domestic smart farm.



The smart farm area is only 2% of the total area of the main items in the horticultural sector. By item, paprika was the highest at 35.9%, followed by tomatoes 4.1%, cucumber 2.3% and strawberries 1.2%. The higher the export competitiveness and the longer crops, the higher the smart farm penetration rate.