South Korea: Declining Food Self-Sufficiency Rates Linked to Loss of Farmland

In a press briefing issued in January 2025, the Korean Peasant Women’s Association (KPWA) reported that the national government has effectively lowered its food self-sufficiency target, raising concerns about its commitment to improving self-sufficiency.
According to the recently released “2024 Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) Statistical Yearbook,” the food self-sufficiency rate for 2023 was 49%, a decrease of 0.4 percentage points from the previous year (49.4%). While there was a brief increase in 2022, the rate has been on a decline since 2017, with concerns that it could fall below 40%. In 2023, the self-sufficiency rates for rice (99.1%), barley (25.4%), and total grains (including feed) (22.2%) were all lower than the previous year.
MAFRA’s recently submitted “First Basic Plan for the Public Income Stabilization Program (2025-2029)” sets a goal of achieving a 55.5% food self-sufficiency rate by 2029. This represents a setback from the previous plan, which aimed for the same target by 2027. MAFRA explained this change as being due to the ongoing reduction in farmland. Recent statistics show a loss of 16,000 hectares of farmland in 2023, bringing the total farmland area to 1.51 million hectares.
The government’s failure to prioritize farmland preservation, which is critical to food self-sufficiency, has led to the revision of key targets in the agricultural policy plan, undermining its credibility, the KPWA reports.
The more significant issue is that even the new target seems unachievable. There is no comprehensive plan or effective policy measures in place to preserve farmland. MAFRA’s earlier “Mid- to Long-Term Food Security Enhancement Plan,” which promised to maintain 1.5 million hectares of farmland for food security, is now at risk of collapse.
Article sourced from KPL website (ijunnong.net) and nongmin.com