일제하 조선에서의 미곡기술정책의 전개

Changes in the strategy of Japanese Rice technology in Colonial Korea

After Japan annexed Korea, in order to exploit Korean rice production, it simply chose to diffuse Japanese varieties into Korean rice production, rather than to develop new rice varieties. However, beginning in the late 1920s, Japan ceased the strategy of simple transfer and then moved toward the comprehensive study to develop new varieties. This paper aims to analyse the motives behind the changes in Japanese agricultural strategy in the 1920s under colonial rule. The results of our analysis are as follows. The climate of Korea is much more like that of Japan than that of other countries, because of same location latitudinally. The potential productivity of Japanese varieties, however, was higher than that of Korean traditional varieties, reflecting their different historical paths. As a result, simple or direct transfer from Japan to Korea was a cheap and efficient way to increase rice productivity in the short run, compared to develop new high yielding varieties. That was also a reason why Japan did not establish an Agricultural Research Station but an Agricultural Model Station in Korea, whose main tasks were simply to screen Japanese seeds adapted to Korean local conditions well. Beginning in the late 1920s, the productivity potential of Japanese seeds began to be exhausted, as the replacement of Japanese seeds with Korean ones reached to some high degree. To overcome such agricultural stagnation, Japan had two options. The first is to screen more high yielding varieties in Japanese agriculture and then to replace the old Japanese varieties diffused in the 1910s. And the second was to develop new high yielding varieties and then diffuse them. However, the first option was almost impossible and required highly cost, since the most of Japanese seeds, especially ones well adapted to Korean conditions, were already imported and as a result there were little room to find out other new seeds in Japan. That was a main reason why it decided to take the second option. To conduct such a comprehensive research, Japan increased the number of research staffs and established new branch station which were exclusively responsible for develop new rice varieties adapted to the ecological conditions of South Korea. In addition, Japan changed its name from Agricultural Model Station as Agricultural Research Station in 1929, in accord with its task.