귀농정책 수혜가구의 특성과 귀농정책의 효과

Policies for Urban-to-Rural Migrant Farmers in South Korea: Recipients Characteristics and the Policy Effect

The present study analyzes the factors that determine the likelihood of being beneficiaries of policy support for urban-to-rural migrant farmers and the effect of such policy support on beneficiaries’ agricultural income. The data were drawn from 2016 National Survey of Urban-to-Rural Migration (Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs), while the policy effect was estimated using the matching method. The empirical results indicate that urban-to-rural migrant farmers aged under 50 years old and those who participated in return-to-farm education programs are more likely to take advantage of policy supports rendered by both the central government and local governments. Furthermore, migrant farmer’s household type, main crop type, and multi-cropping also influence the likelihood of receiving selective policy supports. Depending on specific policies, the central or local government policies increase the beneficiaries’ annual agricultural income by 32 to 89 percent, suggesting a substantial contribution of these policies to the increase in agricultural income of urban-to-rural migrant farmers.