[2021 Budget] 22.4 Trillion Won Invested in 'Youth Farmer Development and Agricultural & Fishery Product Consumption Promotion'

2021 Budget Proposal

'Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, and Food' Budget Increased by 900 Billion Won from 21.5 Trillion Won

2021 Budget Proposal for Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, and Food Sectors.

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The government has decided to strengthen investments for the future of rural areas, including fostering young farmers and smart agriculture and fisheries. To this end, it plans to increase next year's budget for the agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and food sectors by 900 billion won.

On the 1st, the Ministry of Economy and Finance announced that the '2021 Budget Proposal' containing these details has passed the Cabinet meeting.

First, the government will promote new growth engines in agriculture and fisheries, such as fostering young farmers and smart agriculture and fisheries. Specifically, to nurture young farmers, the leased farmland area will be increased from 2,500 hectares to 2,800 hectares, and the number of recipients for farming settlement support will be raised from 4,800 to 5,000. Accordingly, the customized farmland support budget will increase by 125.8 billion won (19.5%) from 646 billion won in 2020 to 771.8 billion won in 2021, and the young farmer farming settlement support will rise by 2 billion won (6.3%) from 31.4 billion won to 33.4 billion won. Additionally, the Smart Farm Innovation Valley (4 locations) will be completed next year, and efforts to promote smart agriculture and fisheries will continue, including expanding smart farm rental scale (from 4 to 6 hectares) and increasing smart aquaculture clusters (from 3 to 4 locations). The support for returning to farming and rural areas, which was previously provided individually by region, will be packaged step-by-step (information provision → 6-month trial living → adaptation to life), increasing the budget for revitalizing returning to farming and rural areas from 13.6 billion won this year to 21.7 billion won next year, a rise of 8.1 billion won (59.6%).

To boost consumption of agricultural and marine products, the scale of consumption coupons will also be expanded. The dining-out coupon budget has been set at 67 billion won, an increase of 32.7 billion won from 34.3 billion won (2020 supplementary budget), a 95.3% increase. Agricultural and marine product consumption coupons will also increase to 122 billion won (an increase of 60 billion won compared to the 2020 supplementary budget).

Investments in the Korean New Deal, including digital and green New Deals, and disaster prevention will also be strengthened. The installation schedule for the remote water gate control system in agricultural reservoirs will be advanced from 2030 to 2015, and the establishment of an automatic water quality monitoring network will be pursued by 2022. To prevent landslides, the budget for check dams will be increased by 18.7 billion won to 74 billion won for additional installations, and disaster recovery expenses to support this year’s heavy rain recovery needs will be expanded to 236.5 billion won, more than double that of this year.

Along with this, a fisheries public interest direct payment system will be introduced to stabilize fishermen’s incomes, and income support for indebted and elderly farmers and fishermen will be strengthened. Furthermore, 3.1 billion won will be invested in rural spatial maintenance projects to improve self-sustaining living conditions in rural areas, and the Fishery New Deal budget will be increased by 100 billion won to 500 billion won, expanding from 190 to 250 locations.

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