Farms and Fisheries

Over-populated South Korea has the basic problem of exploiting its own assets to the full in such a way that importations can be confined to necessities for supplementing insufficiencies, such as food, sources of energy and raw materials needed for her industrial projects. Farming and fishing, both being concerned with food, are served by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. President Chun Doo Hwan, addressing 3000 young farmers and fishermen and related government officials in 1982, stressed the government’s determination to promote scientific farming, effective utilisation of land and modernisation of fishing vessels, as a means of increasing rural incomes. He later expounded on the concept of a rural society even more conveniently and pleasantly served than the urban communities that over-spill the ever-expanding cities. This concept is shared by other countries, notably Egypt, which has had problems of luring professional people from Cairo and Alexandria to the provinces. In Britain too, it has not always been easy to persuade any but young families to exchange their familiar city slum quarters for new model communities.