SEEDS OF DISCONTENT : Heavily in debt, South Korea’s farmers are demanding that their government help them get by--and get wives.

Farmers here, after generations of passivity, are becoming increasingly activist, blaming the government for their heavy debts--and even for their failure to find wives.

Yu Dong Son, 27, and his 80-year-old grandmother run a 2 1/2-acre farm in this area 72 miles south of Seoul. It is more than twice as big as neighboring farms, but it no longer produces enough to keep Yu out of debt, he said. Starting with a loan of $450 seven years ago, his debt has grown to $6,000, he said.

“The more land you have, the more likely your debt will grow,” he said. “It’s too late for me to leave the farm. I have no other skill, and there’s no guarantee that I could make a better living in the city.”

Banding Together

Yu blames bad government policy--neglect of farming and emphasis on industrial development--and bad advice from government agricultural specialists for most of his troubles.

Determined to end their traditional passivity toward the government, Yu and about 200 other young farmers have joined the Chongyang Farmers Assn., which was set up in 1987 to protest government farm policies. Korean farmers have been naive, Yu said, adding:

“Until now, we have been silent. But it will be different from now on. We have become awakened.”

Contributing to their problems, the farmers say, are U.S. demands for an opening of their market to American farm products.

“Bad policy can be corrected,” Yu said, but “once imports start to pour in, there will be no way to stop the flow.”

The U.S. demands have spurred a rash of anti-American demonstrations. “I’ve been to every one of them--more than a dozen so far,” said Kim Chong Bok, chairman of the farmers’ association.

And then there is the problem of finding wives.

Yu has had no luck in getting a wife. Neither have about 80% of the other young farmers in the association.

“At 36, I’m the second-oldest bachelor,” Kim said.

Lack of cultural activities, poor transportation--the drive to Seoul takes at least 2 1/2 hours--and the absence of a general high school combine to make Chongyang an unattractive place to live. A commercial high school for girls and an agricultural high school for boys are the only secondary schools, and this virtually negates the possibility that any child reared here can go on to college.

Graduates Go Elsewhere

The young Chongyang farmers say their debts, which are seven times what they were in 1980, the rigors of farm work and a growing perception, made more acute by the U.S. demands, that there is no future in farming are driving young women and many farmers themselves out of agriculture.

“Even the graduates of the agricultural high school seek jobs in government or business,” Kim said.

According to Choi Byung Chul, assistant manager of the Chongyang Agriculture Cooperative, 60% of the Chongyang farmers are already over age 50. Many continue to farm only because they have no other skills.

Less than 20 years ago, more than half the people in South Korea lived on farms. Today, only 20% do.

Statistics show that for every 100 single men between ages 20 and 34 in the rural counties of South Korea, there are only 50 single women. In the “most eligible” age bracket--25 to 29--the ratio is 5 to 1.

“If you try to arrange a marriage through a go-between, the women always ask what job the prospective husband has,” Kim said. “If the answer is ‘farmer,’ they won’t even meet you.”

For some women, he said, “just the fact of living in the countryside is enough to turn down a meeting.”

Yu’s attachment to farming is based partly on tradition. His family records go back 31 generations. Even so, none of his three brothers or two sisters wanted to stay on the farm, and Yu now tends it with his grandmother.

“Land doesn’t betray you,” he said. “If you put your sweat into it, it will yield fruits. Land is honest.”

Kim said: “When I was in school, farmers could raise enough money to send two of their children to high school by selling a couple of cows and pigs, but not anymore. When the harvest comes in, after paying for fertilizer, insecticides and part-time labor, we have virtually nothing left.”

Parity Sought

Recognizing that they cannot compete in the international marketplace, where prices are often only one-tenth of what they are in South Korea, farmers are insisting that the government guarantee them a decent livelihood.

Kim said the government should raise the price of a 176-pound bag of rice, the standard selling unit, from $128 to between $165 and $180. The break-even price, he said, is about $150.

The government, however, has already announced that it will not raise the price by more than 10% this year.

Government statistics put the average farming household’s debt at $4,500, compared to annual income of $9,800, which is only 70% of urban family average income. Farm income, moreover, accounts for only $6,000 of the $9,800, with non-farm work accounting for the rest.

About half of his neighbors, Yu said, are tenant farmers, tilling land that was sold off by people who have left for the cities.

“Farmers have good reason to criticize the government, especially its past policies,” said Ro Sung Tae of the government-financed Korea Development Institute.

In May, the government of President Roh Tae Woo announced an 11-year, $3-billion plan to upgrade agriculture and double income by 1993. But the government also made it clear that much of the improvement is to come from the larger farms created by still more farmers leaving their land and from farmers seeking more of their livelihood from non-farm jobs.

By the early 21st Century, the farm population is expected to be cut by one-half. And rather than raise prices for crops, the government said it wants to increase the portion of income from non-farm jobs to 50% by 1993, from the present 38%, by building small factories in rural areas.

Chongyang is scheduled to get the first of five planned factories in the near future. At present, the nearest factories are more than an hour away.

The young farmers of Chongyang are also angry with the national agricultural cooperative, run by the government.

“The cooperative just wants to make money,” Kim said. “It is more interested in selling household appliances and TV sets on credit--at 18% interest--than in buying crops at a fair price.”

Yu said the cooperative, which operates one of the largest banks in Chongyang, has never made its accounts public. And there are no active farmers in its management.

“Officials of the cooperative are appointed by the government, many of them former military men who know nothing about farming,” Yu said.

Kim started organizing the Chongyang Farmers Assn. three years ago. So far, fewer than 10% of the county’s farmers have joined.

“In the government’s eyes,” Kim said, “we are a dissident organization,” and despite the democratic reforms under President Roh, the association’s members still find themselves shadowed by police.

“They (the government) used county officials, and even my relatives, to try to persuade me not to organize the farmers association, and accused me of being a leftist,” Kim said.

So far, he admits, successes have been few. But the farmers are making themselves noticed. Under one reform carried out by President Roh, farmers got their first chance to elect officials of their cooperatives, and in Chongyang, a rebel candidate for chairman lost by only five votes.