통일벼 증산농정과 농민의 품종선택권

초록

This article examines the mutually antagonistic trajectories of the Park Chung-hee government’s agricultural policies in the 1970s and the Korean Catholic Farmers Association’s (C.F.A) vision for rural development. By analyzing how the C.F.A’s movement became integrated into anti-Yusin resistance, it reveals that the C.F.A framed their opposition as a fight for “the right to seed selection,”(seed sovereignty) positioning it as a matter of farmers’ human rights. During the 1960s, South Korea underwent rapid industrialization, which led to significant rural depopulation and the underdevelopment of farming communities. While both the government and the C.F.A pursued rural development, they did so from markedly different standpoints. The government emphasized increased rice production to support the growing non-agricultural population. In contrast, the C.F.A prioritized empowering farmers through community-based development and self-help initiatives. Beginning in 1972, the Park Chung-hee administration distributed new high-yield rice varieties, such as Tong-il and its successors, to farmers to boost production. While this policy succeeded in increasing total rice output, it also resulted in numerous adverse effects. Many farmers were left in debt, and their livelihoods became increasingly precarious. The government, however, portrayed the rise in production as a hallmark of South Korea’s successful “Green Revolution” while downplaying the hardships faced by rural communities. In contrast, the C.F.A criticized these policies for focusing solely on output at the expense of farmer welfare. They reframed the issue as one of human rights and, leveraging the broader Catholic network, extended their advocacy to encompass workers’ rights as well. The concept of farmers’ “right to seed selection,” which gained prominence following the crisis triggered by the new rice variety No-pung in 1978 became the central language of the C.F.A’s counter-discourse against Yusin’s agricultural policies.

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