Should government keep buying surplus rice?
By Lee Hyo-sikRice means something special to Koreans as the crop has been an essential part of the nation's culinary culture for as long as people on the Korean Peninsula have engaged in agriculture. For many years, rice farming used to be the most popular occupation, before the industrialization of modern Korea, as most people lived in rural areas.However, things have changed rapidly over the past few decades as the nation has become one of the world's 10 largest economies with more than 92 percent of people now residing in cities and engaging in non-agriculture jobs. According to Statistics Korea, agriculture accounted for only 2 percent of Korea's $1.8-trillion gross domestic product in 2021, with 4.3 percent of the country's 51.7 million people, or 2.22 million people, making a living by farming.Over the years, rice has become less important in Koreans' diet because people consume more meat, vegetables and other crops. Yet, production has not come down in proportion to declining consumption because the government buys hundreds of thousands of tons of rice every year at higher th
