Abstract
In Korea, environment-friendly agriculture is one farming technique to increase farm household income and pursue both environmental preservation and safety of agricultural products by estabilizing sustainable agricultural production with harmonization between agriculture and the environment (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry). This articulation was established by the Korean government in 1997 as the Environment-friendly Agriculture Promotion Act and 1998 was declared to be the starting year for environment-friendly agriculture. In addition, a direct payment system for Environment-friendly Agriculture was introduced in 1999. Subsequently, the Environment-friendly Agriculture Promotion Act was revised and a five-year plan for Environment-friendly Agriculture was implemented in January 2001. These policies greatly promoted environment-friendly agriculture and as a result environment-friendly agriculture, including organic agriculture, increased rapidly.
Currently private certification institutions are increasing to privatize the certification of environment-friendly agricultural products. This participation from private certification institutions is expected by the local government and farmers to be an important key in revitalization of the local communities. This paper focuses on the current state and characteristics of these private certification institutions to promote environment-friendly agricultural products and contributes to the development of environment-friendly agriculture and local communities.
JEL classification: Q18, Q56, Q58
