Value of urban agriculture grows in South Korea
Urban agriculture’s economic value, such as in purchasing agricultural supplies and creating jobs, exceeded about 2.2 billion U.S. dollars.
Jeong Eun-joo, Arirang News.
Sept 25, 2023
Excerpt:
As of last year, there were 1.96 million urban farmers who cultivated gardens and green spaces.
The area of urban gardens reached 1052 hectares.
When the value of urban agriculture was converted into money, the analysis results showed that it was worth more than 5 trillion won, or roughly 3.7 billion U.S. dollars.
Urban agriculture’s economic value, such as in purchasing agricultural supplies and creating jobs, exceeded 3 trillion won, or about 2.2 billion U.S. dollars.
The social value, which includes physical activity and emotional well-being reached 1.3 trillion won, or 981 million U.S. dollars while the environmental value, such as in carbon reduction or urban greening, was worth 700 billion won, or 528 million U.S. dollars.
“This is significant as we quantified how effective urban agriculture is both socially and environmentally, beyond simply thinking it would be good.”
As urban farming is gaining attention as an industry, the Rural Development Administration plans to use these analysis results as the basis for urban farming policy formulation for the mutual development of urban and rural areas.
