Famers' Preparation for Aging and Altive Policies

Abstract

The purposes of this study are 1) to investigate farmers' preparation for aging, and 2) to suggest alternative policies to improve farmers' preparation for aging. The research methods were collection and analysis of existing data, and mail survey. Existing related data were collected by searching the data of related research institutes and governmental organizations. The mail survey was conducted among 1,075 local correspondents of Korea Rural Economic Institute(KREI). Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentage, means and cross-classification tables were used to organize and summarize the data. According to the results of the mail survey, only 55.9% of farmers were subscribed to the national pension, which means almost the other half of them could not be protected through the basic income safety net. Moreover, the subscribers were expected to receive only small pension benefits because they were applied to very low income level. The pension subscription rate of farmers' spouses was 42.9%. It was found that farmers were most concerned with health(59.0%), followed by preparation of living costs(25.9%), taking care of their children(7.9%), and medical costs(4.7%) for aging. Alternative policies to improve farmers' preparation for aging are as follows: 1) periodic investigation of farmers' preparation for aging, 2) governmental inducement for farmers' pension subscription, 3) encouragement of female farmers' pension subscription, 4) inducement for improving the level of farmers' pension subscription, 5) improvement of land pension system, 6) creation of jobs for elderly farmers, 7) construction of regular health control system, and 8) education and support of farmers' preparation for aging.