[Kim Myong-sik] Can ‘sixth industry’ save our rural communities?

Have you ever heard of “the sixth-order industry,” “the senary industry” or simply “the sixth industry?” Some may have, but many haven’t even heard of a fourth or fifth industry. When I first spotted this novel term in a news item, I regretted the poor updating of my small economic glossary, which only contained entries for primary, secondary and tertiary industries.

Yet, a box at the end of the article saved me. It kindly explained that the concept is a combination of the first (growing, raising and catching food 

resources), second (processing) and third (sales and other service) sectors in rural communities to create high added value. “Tourist farms,” where visitors from cities experience farm life on weekends or during vacations and buy fresh produce, were given as an example. (Later I learned that the term was coined by our ingenious Japanese neighbors during the brief center-left government of Yukio Hatoyama in 2010.)

The story was about city-to-countryside migration in connection with the five-year (2013-2017) Development Plan for Farming Communities and Food Industry announced by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock and Marine Affairs last year. Here, “sixth-order industrialization” was listed as a key area of agricultural innovation aimed at increasing the annual added value in the farming sector by 3 percent.

The ministry has set its targets high: the nation’s food self-sufficiency rate will be raised to 30 percent in 2017 from 23.6 percent in 2012; agricultural sector exports will grow from $5.6 billion to $10 billion; and rural population will be increased to 19 percent of the national total from 17.7 percent in the base year. Most importantly, the rate of life satisfaction in rural communities will reach 43 percent in 2017; in other words, 43 out of every 100 farmers will feel happy by then, compared to 35.7 in 2012.

Three percent annual growth is a modest figure by Korean standards, but given the bleak environment Korean rural communities have confronted in recent decades under the rough waves of globalization brought on by the WTO, DDA and FTAs, the plan shows the great determination and ambition of our agricultural officials to keep farms alive and well. We all hope that these goals are attained and the new sixth-order industry works its magic.

“Agriculture is the basis of national existence.” This maxim of the bygone days still flickers in our national psyche at a time when the agricultural sector accounts for less than 3 percent of Korea’s GDP. About 75 percent of all adults have their roots in the countryside; 60 percent have actually lived in rural areas for some time. So we watch the great exodus from the central metropolitan areas to the countryside on every Chuseok holiday.

People are saddened wherever they live when the TV news shows farmers in despair standing in the middle of monsoon-flooded rice paddies, greenhouses collapsed under heavy snow and tractors plowing up fields with full-grown cabbages still in them after produce prices hit rock bottom. Law enforcement authorities are cautious when dealing with farmers’ protests as they are aware of the political consequences of any mishaps.

In fact, the agricultural officials were somewhat encouraged while drafting the five-year plan as statistics indicated significant increases in the number of people returning to farms (a process called “gwinong”) or rural communities (“gwichon”) in recent years. The “U-turn” population has steadily grown since 2009 to the all-time high of 56,000 people in 32,400 households in 2013.

Figures went up steeply for three years ― 6,650 U-turn households in 2010, 10,500 in 2011 (a 158 percent increase) and 27,000 in 2012 (a 157 percent rise). The rate, however, slowed down to 20 percent in 2013, with nonfarming gwichon households far outnumbering the gwinong people, who live mainly on the income from their land. Less than 40 percent of the entire rural population is actually engaged in farming.

Classification of gwinong and gwichon households is a complicated matter because of the blurred division between rural and urban communities under the current local administrative system. Counties (“gun”) with relatively high population densities are redefined as cities, though they may still include large areas of farmland and forests. We see high-rise apartments in the “eup” and “myeon” units of counties and green fields in the “gu” and “dong” of cities.

Yet, in everyone’s minds, there is a clear distinction between city and country lives, and the weary souls who have spent their lives struggling in city offices dream of “going back” to the old hometown or to any place in Mother Nature. The chance comes when employees retire voluntarily or involuntarily as the economy fluctuates, with just enough severance pay to buy an orchard or open a pension fund. These returnees and the more innovative among the native farmers are to become the pioneers of the sixth-order industry.

It is interesting that 1+2+3 equals 6 and 1x2x3 also equals 6. The additive equation means that farmers (producers) expand their activities in the processing and sales-distribution areas, while the multiplicative equation indicates farms networking with existing secondary and tertiary sector businesses. The Agriculture Ministry set aside 30 billion won for this year to promote the sixth industry with the six core businesses of production, processing, distribution, tourism, rural immersion, catering and healing (with the power of nature).

Not many people have great confidence in the bureaucratic capabilities of the ministry and local administrations, as their guidance and support for farmers do not always have appreciable effects under the constantly adverse environment. But, for the development of the sixth industry, a governmental role is essential because it involves crossover initiatives between the traditional primary industry and the secondary-tertiary sectors, and this requires coordination by government authorities.

Convergence is called for these days in all areas, including the job of providing food for humans. The generally high level of education, the advanced status of transportation-communication infrastructure and now the rising trend of many people yearning to start a second career in the bosom of nature make Korea’s rural communities well-suited for the sixth-order industry. Be it a tourist farm, a woodland pension, a herb park or a restaurant serving local food, success depends on how much the gwinong and gwichon individuals devote themselves to their new ventures, whether or not they have other financial resources to live on. 

By Kim Myong-sik

Kim Myong-sik is a former editorial writer for The Korea Herald. He can be reached at kmyongsik@hanmail.net. ― Ed.