Seosamsok “Budget Cuts Despite Lagging Agricultural Technology?”

Widening Gap with EU... Discontinued Projects Waste Budget
"Government Must Support Researcher-Centered R&D Environment"

Assemblyman Seo Samsuk

As the technological gap in the agriculture and food sectors between South Korea and the EU widens, concerns have been raised that the government’s related budget has actually decreased, making urgent countermeasures necessary.

According to data submitted by the Science and Technology Policy Institute to Seo Sam-seok, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (representing Yeongam, Muan, and Sinan), the technological gap in the domestic agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and food sectors compared to the EU increased from 3.2 years in 2020 to 3.4 years in 2022. The gap in ‘food value creation technology’ also gradually widened from 3 years to 4 years during the same period.

The Science and Technology Policy Institute (hereinafter referred to as the Institute) evaluates and publishes the technological levels of South Korea, the United States, the EU, Japan, and China every two years for nationally important core technologies in accordance with the ‘Framework Act on Science and Technology.’

According to the Institute’s survey results, the quality of papers and patents in the agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and food sectors has also significantly declined. The qualitative level of papers ranked last among the five countries, in the order of EU, the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea. Patent quality ranked fourth, in the order of China, the United States, the EU, South Korea, and Japan.

Despite the growing technological gap in the agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and food sectors, the government’s R&D budget remains insufficient. The Yoon Seok-yeol administration cut the Rural Development Administration’s R&D budget from KRW 761.2 billion in 2023 to KRW 582.3 billion in 2024, a reduction of KRW 178.9 billion (24%). Although the 2025 R&D budget is expected to recover to about KRW 609.6 billion, approximately 5% more than in 2024, it is still far below the 2023 level.

The budget for food-related projects, which lags behind advanced countries, also decreased compared to the previous year. The ‘Agricultural Science-Based Technology Research’ project, a detailed sub-project of this, allocated KRW 6.01 billion in 2024 for the purpose of evaluating the potential of agricultural and food resources and developing materials, but this was reduced by KRW 853 million (14%) to KRW 5.157 billion in 2025.

Discontinued food-related projects are also problematic. When the 2024 budget was prepared, the projects ‘Development of Production Stabilization Technologies to Expand Consumption of Local Agricultural Products’ and ‘Support for Export of Agricultural and Food Industry Technologies’ were originally planned to continue research until 2024, but their entire 2024 budgets were cut, resulting in suspension. A total of 19 projects were funded with KRW 37.2 billion, but since the goals were not achieved, the budget was wasted.

Rep. Seo criticized, “Research and development is a crucial matter that determines the nation’s future, and since the R&D environment and support are important, an environment for researchers must be created. Although the technological gap in the agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and food sectors with the EU has widened, the related budget has decreased, raising concerns about a decline in technological capabilities.”

He added, “Regarding the result that the qualitative level of papers ranks lowest among the five countries, the Rural Development Administration and related researchers should humbly accept this. The Yoon Seok-yeol administration should devise measures to reduce the agricultural science and technology gap with the EU and immediately complete unfulfilled projects to avoid criticism of budget waste due to early termination of projects.”