NACF delegation after the lecture at the State Ministry of Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry

In September 2009 a group of the South Korean National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) went on a study trip to Germany organised by the Hanns-Seidel-Foundation Korea. Topic of the journey with the title “Renewable resources in Bavarian agriculture and changes of agrarian structure of the new federal states after the reunification” was especially the sustainable spatial development and the development of agriculture in the new federal states after the reunification. The group was accompanied by Kim Young-Soo, Project Manager of the Hanns-Seidel-Foundation Korea, Seoul Office.

The study trip group this year consisted of eleven persons, amongst them seven presidents of the primary cooperatives, three employees of the agrarian federation of cooperatives and one journalist of the peasants’ newspaper. The NACF delegation visited Bavaria, Saxony, Brandenburg and Berlin. In Bavaria they visited the State Ministry of Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry where the participants heard a talk about the topic “Renewable Resources in Bavarian agriculture – the role of biomass” and held a discussion afterwards. They also got the possibility to visit a barnyard and to inform themselves about new revenue sources for agriculture like “holidays on a barnyard”. In Leipzig, Saxony, the delegation visited two agricultural businesses where they could have a look at the development of agriculture since the reunification and compare the differences between the old and the new federal states. Their last station was a cemetery in the forest FriedWald Fürstenwalde in Brandenburg.

The NACF is one of the oldest partner organisations of the Hanns-Seidel-Foundation in South Korea. For 20 years both organisations have been carrying out joint study trips about the topics of agricultural policies and rural development. The last one had been in May. The exchange of information, visits of speakers on topics such as to experience “holidays on a barnyard” in Germany and a study trip with the topic of rural finance on the example of German cooperative banks were part of the joint programme in the last years.

NACF delegation with Christian Hegemer, director of the Institute of International Contact and Cooperation of HSS at the headquarter of HSS

NACF delegation at Kitzscher agricultural business