Asia's promotion of organic agriculture faces climate change and high costs, countries seek solutions

Today is the second day of the international symposium on "Opportunities and Challenges for Smallholders Engaging in Organic Agriculture," featuring South Korea, where the share of organic farmland surpasses that of Taiwan, as well as Malaysia, the Philippines and other countries, which introduced the development of their respective organic agriculture in turn to provide experiences for mutual reference; however, participating countries generally mentioned that the development dilemma of organic agriculture is that large climate variability leads to excessively high input costs, and under circumstances where farmers find it difficult to make a living, this in turn limits the development of organic agriculture, and coupled with each country's own inherent and institutional shortcomings, all have rolled out diverse approaches in response, hoping to break through the bottleneck of organic development.

South Korea: To raise the share of organic agriculture, soil management comes first

Regarding the current state of organic agriculture in South Korea, Young Woong Byeon, a senior researcher at the Rural Development Administration, pointed out that organic agriculture currently accounts for only 1% of all agriculture; in order to reach the goal of a 5% share by 2020, South Korea strengthened the promotion of organic agriculture in 1997 through the "Environment-Friendly Agriculture Fosterage Act," and in recent years has successively promoted organic agriculture-related plans and technologies through cooperation between the private sector and the government; although growth has slowed in recent years, overall organic products and farmland have still steadily increased.

As for what specific measures South Korea has, Young Woong Byeon stated that for the organic part, soil management comes first; good soil can increase yields, raise farmers' profitability, and protect food safety, so the use of green manure is quite important; South Korea's relevant agricultural research has introduced various kinds of green manure for farmers to use, such as using "vetch" to replace nitrogen fertilizer, which has a good substitution effect; the remaining vegetables and materials can also serve as organic fertilizer, such as bone meal, or molasses plus yogurt after fermentation, which can also become a handy phosphorus fertilizer; quite a few farms in South Korea are developing their own organic fertilizers, and the sale of organic compost must also pass certification.

As for the most troublesome part, pests and diseases, Young Woong Byeon stated that South Korea mostly responds with mixed planting, crop rotation, grafting or exposure and other methods, such as planting potatoes together with soybeans, which research found can effectively reduce disease; in addition, natural food ingredients such as cooking oil mixed with egg yolk to make "COY," used in combination with other ingredients, can also achieve disease resistance effects.

On the policy side, Young Woong Byeon emphasized that in addition to the above technological developments, there is also the hope of raising farmers toward organic through the transmission of knowledge; specific practices include printing organic agriculture guidance manuals, making educational comics, and holding educational courses, and organic explanatory diagrams will also be added to publications that farmers often read to attract farmers' understanding; in addition, a "one farmer, one doctor" program will be piloted in the future, so that every organic farmer can have a researcher to cooperate with; researchers can see farmers' needs, make new organic agriculture plans, and also provide academic support and the latest technology; the most important thing is to prescribe the right remedy for actual field problems, hoping to create organic collective communities within three years.