Income gap between farmers, urban workers hits record high

The income gap between the country's farm workers and non-farm workers widened to a record high last year, with earnings of farmers shrinking due to a rise in costs, the government said Thursday.

The average income of farmers stood at 59.1 percent of that of urban households in 2011, according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. It is the first time that the ratio fell below the 60 percent mark.

Up until the mid-1980s, the average income of farm workers exceeded that of city dwellers, with the income of farm workers standing at 112.8 percent of urban workers in 1985. The ratio dropped to 95.7 percent in 1995 and again to 78.2 percent in 2005.

"The gap widened as income by urban households continued to grow over the years while those of farmhouses, more or less, remained unchanged," a ministry official said.

The average income of an urban laborer grew 31 percent from 39.02 million won ($34,647) in 2005 to 50.98 million won last year, according to the ministry. The average income of farm workers, on the other hand, shrank from 30.5 million won to 30.15 million won over the cited period.

The ministry attributed the drop in the average income of farmhouses to rising costs.

The average price for 80 kilograms of rice, the country's main staple crop, remained virtually unchanged from 157,000 won in 2000 to 160,000 won in 2010 while the cost of fertilizer more than doubled from 5,300 won per a package to 11,000 won.

"To help increase the income of small farmhouses that account for over 80 percent of total income by households in the farming industry, the government must take various measures, including support for self-owned facilities that can process their own produce and create valued-added goods," said an official of the Korea Rural Economics Institute. (Yonhap)