Joint Action on East Asia Farm Policy
Nonghyup holds East Asia Agricultural Council for cooperation in WTO Ministerial Meeting

Nonghyup held the 15th East Asia Agricultural Council with members including heads of farm organizations in Korea, Japan, and two other countries participating on August 29 at its Central Headquarters.
The meeting discussed details of agricultural issues to be dealt with at the 6th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Meeting scheduled for Hong Kong in December.
The participants included Chung Dae-kun, chairman of Nonghyup, N. Bayartsaikhan, chairman of the Mongolian Agricultural Organization, Vice Chairman Moteki Mamoru of the Japanese Agricultural Organization, and Chang Yung-cheng, chairman of the Taiwanese Agricultural Organization.
They agreed to cooperate with each other to prevent any country to be sacrificed at the WTO Meeting, saying that some agricultural products exporting countries did not take into account the true nature of agriculture and put up non-trade conditions, making impossible the success of the WTO Meeting in Hong Kong.
They issued the joint statement on three separate themes including "market approach" "domestic subsidies"and "export competition."They also announced that the WTO modalities should represent all member countries in consideration of their particular state of agriculture, reflecting positions of exporting and importing countries in a balanced form.
Chairman Chung, in his keynote speech, said the situation at farms in Korea has been growing worse due to the expanded opening of farm markets and advancing age. In order for each country's agriculture sectors to co-exist, they ought to consider the particulars of its farms and the opening of farms should be slowed down in the face of worsening farm conditions.
The EAOC was set up in 1990 by farm organizations in four Asian countries with similar farm background to cooperate in farm matters of their countries. Nonghyup hosted the 15th EAOC meeting this time in Seoul.
In the meantime, Nonghyup said it signed 'Love Farm Cooperation Agreement' with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, Invest Korea and the Korea Foreign Company Association on August 30 at the International Conference Room of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy at Gwachon Integrated Government Complex near Seoul.
Participating in the signing ceremony were MOCIE Minister Lee Hee-beom, Nonghyup Chairman Chung Dae-kun, Allan Timblick, head of Invest Korea, Shin Bak-jae, chairman of the Korea Foreign Company Association and Vice President Tami Overby of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.
Invest Korea and the Korea Foreign Company Association have agreed to promote their member companies to conclude a one company-one farm village sisterhood relationship to support farms and help expand the consumption of Korean farm produce to enhance the development of farm regions in the country through diversified activities.
The MOCIE, too, has decided to help foreign invested firms to participate in the Love Farm Movement, while it also will conclude a sisterhood tie-up with a farm village.
Already, Toray Sehan and Samsung Corning have already concluded one company-one farm sisterhood relationships with Uisong, North Gyeongsang Province, and Asan, South Chungcheong Province, and Danyang, North Chungcheong Province.
On the other hand, Nonghyup has been working hard to upgrade the quality of life on farms and farmers by operating the Nonghyup Cultural Welfare Foundation, which has been operating variety of programs including overseas training programs for farm youths and voluntary service units to help farms.
The foundation's funds will be increased to 600 billion won by 2013 from 40 billion won at the present time and it currently operates 157 voluntary service units in cities and counties in farm regions across the country to provide beauty care and bathing services by visiting farm towns.
The foundation plans to build theme parks in farm towns, along with Oriental medical clinics and old people's homes to upgrade welfare for farmers.
Nonghyup has been promoting 'Love Farm Movement Along with the People's program this year. It plans to expand the one company-one village sisterhood relationship. It also has been working to bring cities and farms closer by creating 'Love Farm Deposit Accounts' and 'Love Farm Credit Cards'to make them feel that cities and farm village are closely linked.
So far, there have been 5,281 cases of one company-one village tie-ups with 2,775 companies and 355 consumer groups participating in the movement with a total of 1.36 million individuals involved.
Nonghyup has also been operating 'Love Farm 9988 Volunteer Service Unit'and 'Ari Volunteer Service Unit' to help senior citizens in farm villages with weekly visits to their homes to provide services including bath and medical check-ups. The 9988 Volunteer Service Unit in Naju, South Jeolla Province is a good example. They have been extending services to those senior people under the slogan of 'please Live Until 99 Years of Age.' The Ari Volunteer 119 Service Unit has been doing farm work to help short-handed farms, along with emergency recovery service when disasters occur in farming towns.
Nonghyup provided 2.1 billion won in scholarships to 1,159 farm youths through its Nonghyup Scholarship Society set up in 2002.
The Nonghyup Culture Welfare Foundation provided the opportunity for 180 farm youths selected from farm communities around the country to tour Europe and the United States in nine groups to learn culture, history, science and farm conditions in those countries for eight days from August 10 until the 26 of this year.
The foundation collected stories on their travels from students and presented awards to well-written memoirs to lead them to study harder and had them put on their homepages so that their experiences could be shared with other students.
The foundation meant to give a chance to students of primary, middle and high schools in farm towns to learn about culture of advanced countries so that they would have big dreams and hopes for the future and thus train talented leaders for the country in the future through the farm youths "global culture experience group."Foundation officials said they wanted to give opportunities to youths in farm regions to experience advanced cultures so that they might have big dreams and have pride and love for their villages.
There are many social welfare corporations and public interest foundations in the country, but they are centered on big cities rather than farm towns.
The foundation was born in July of last year in a bid to improve and further develop farm regions in terms of upgrading the quality of life and it will continue to be dedicated to developing the traditions of farm regions and improving welfare conditions. Among various objectives that the foundation have been pursuing are research and the study of farm support businesses for continued development of the agricultural regions in the country. nw

Heads of farm organizations in South Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and Taiwan in Seoul to attend the 15th EAOC meeting.