Jeonnam Province Implements Measures to Strengthen Safety Management of Eco-Friendly Agriculture

Restrictions on Participation in Agricultural Projects for Farms Penalized with Fraudulent Certification Starting Next Year

[Muan=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jeonnam Province announced on the 2nd that starting next year, it will implement strengthened safety management measures that restrict the participation of farms penalized for fraudulent certification in eco-friendly agriculture projects to ensure the safe supply of eco-friendly agricultural products.

This measure was prepared to fundamentally block the occurrence of certification cancellations due to annual certification abandonment and detection of residual pesticides despite various safety management measures for eco-friendly agricultural products promoted by the province and strong subsidy recovery actions.

From next year, if eco-friendly agricultural products certification is canceled once, support for provincial subsidy projects related to eco-friendly agriculture will be restricted for three years, and if detected two or more times, exclusion will last for five years.

In particular, for habitual offenders with two or more cancellations in the past five years, even a single certification cancellation will result in immediate exclusion from support for five years, effectively expelling them from eco-friendly agriculture.

Additionally, pesticide applicators and suppliers of substandard agricultural materials who cause administrative sanctions in eco-friendly agricultural complexes by mixing pesticides or using conventional agricultural machinery during joint pest control will be permanently restricted from participating in eco-friendly agricultural complex projects.

Through this, the responsibility awareness of related companies will also be strengthened.

Management of production sites to prevent fraudulent certification will also be strengthened. Until now, suspected pesticide-sprayed plots could only be inspected with the cooperation of the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service, but from next year, city and county officials will be able to conduct inspections.

Lee Jeonghee, head of the Eco-friendly Agriculture Division of Jeonnam Province, said, “The majority of farmers who sincerely practice eco-friendly agriculture should not suffer due to fraudulent certification by a few farms,” and added, “We will actively develop and implement measures so that farmers can focus solely on producing safe and healthy agricultural products.”

Meanwhile, as of the end of September, the certified area for eco-friendly agricultural products in the Jeonnam region is 44,000 hectares, accounting for 55% of the national total. The organic certification area also renewed its record high at 18,000 hectares, which is 56% of the national total.

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