NongHyup Central Association President: "Mobilizing All Efforts to Resolve Labor Shortage in Rural Areas During Farming Season"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] Lee Seonghee, Chairman of the NongHyup Central Association, along with NongHyup executives and employees, conducted a 'NongHyup-wide Employee Rural Labor Assistance' on the 21st at an apple farm located in Hansu-myeon, Jecheon-si, Chungbuk, marking the start of the full-scale farming season.

On this day, the labor assistance was carried out with the participation of NongHyup executives and employees to help farms struggling with labor shortages during the busy farming season due to delays in the arrival of foreign seasonal workers caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

NongHyup is making every effort to resolve the shortage of rural labor and ensure smooth supply of farming manpower by expanding the number of farming work team operation offices from 99 last year to 176 this year in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and local governments, and by starting operations early to fill the gap in foreign seasonal worker manpower supply.

Additionally, during the peak farming season (April to June), NongHyup plans to actively carry out company-wide labor assistance by executives and employees, joint labor assistance with the government, military units, and local governments, and volunteer activities linked with Ministry of Justice social service workers and regional volunteer centers.

To reduce the demand for farming manpower through agricultural machinery work, NongHyup conducted free engine oil changes and safety inspections in advance for 7,540 large agricultural machines (tractors, combines, rice transplanters, etc.) at 578 NongHyup branches nationwide throughout March. This year, the mechanization project aims to cover 11,000 hectares of direct-seeded rice and 1.2 million hectares of farming work outsourcing.

In particular, to prepare in advance for the full-scale farming season, NongHyup supported 1,110 agricultural machines (worth 33.5 billion KRW), including drones and forklifts, to agricultural cooperatives nationwide in March and April to expand the digital agriculture infrastructure and reduce agricultural management costs.

Chairman Lee Seonghee said, "We are making every effort to promote NongHyup-wide labor assistance to resolve the shortage of rural labor on-site, and we ask many citizens and various organizations to take an interest in and actively participate in rural labor assistance to support agriculture and rural communities."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.