The Impact of New Technologies on R&D and Innovation in an Agriculture

Agriculture is the longest lasting industrial sector. The effort for improving productivity has been continuing with various methods. In the past, compared with the improvement of productivity by changing farming methods, it now contributes to the improvement of agricultural productivity through external factors such as changes in technologies, R&D activities, investments, cooperation with multiple stakeholders and government policies. In other words, there are distinctions between traditional agriculture and current agriculture, for instance, productivity has been determined by the ability of the farmer, but now complex and changing factors are combined to determine productivity. In case of agriculture in Korea, it was traditionally focused on rice farming, but with the changes such as social demand and consuming pattern, Korean agriculture has been gradually changing into special crops farming and upland farming. Although unprecedentedly, as the Korean economy grew rapidly and agricultural productivity grew satisfactorily it is now shown productivity limitation of agriculture because of agricultural infrastructure, its system for R&D and innovation, technology adoption etc. This study explores how certain factors related to technology and innovation may give an impact on Korean agriculture. In order to seek to factors which may contribute development in agriculture, case study, STEEP and SWOT analysis were applied. This study is focused on technology in a broad scope rather than detailed technology and seek to the methods how to improve technological development of agriculture in Korea.