Payment of 2.2753 trillion KRW in Basic Public Interest Direct Payments Begins for 1.12 Million Farming Households and Farmers

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced that it will begin disbursing the Basic Public Interest Direct Payment, introduced this year under the "Act on the Operation of Direct Payment System for the Promotion of Agricultural and Rural Public Interest Functions," starting from the 5th.

The Basic Public Interest Direct Payment is expected to be paid to 1,121,000 verified farming households and farmers (covering 1,128,000 hectares) with a total amount of 2.2753 trillion KRW.

Small-scale direct payments paid per farming household amount to 517.4 billion KRW (431,000 households), and area-based direct payments paid per farmer (including corporations) amount to 1.7579 trillion KRW (690,000 people).

The Ministry accepted applications for the Basic Public Interest Direct Payment from May to the end of June this year, and from July to the end of October, it verified whether applicants and their farmland met eligibility requirements such as actual cultivation and off-farm income.

Through analysis of application data and on-site inspections, eligibility was strictly verified, excluding 26,000 cases (32,000 hectares) that did not meet payment requirements from the direct payment recipients to prevent fraudulent claims in advance. Farms that did not meet the small-scale direct payment criteria were converted to area-based direct payment recipients.

After application submission, compliance inspections were conducted, and if violations such as improper maintenance or management of farmland or failure to comply with pesticide safety standards were confirmed, direct payments were reduced by 10% for each compliance item violated.

With the increase in the payment unit price of the Basic Public Interest Direct Payment, the amount received by recipients generally increased compared to before the reform, especially for small- and medium-sized farms and farmers and those cultivating dry fields.

The total direct payment amount paid to farms and farmers cultivating between 0.1 hectares and 0.5 hectares is 509.1 billion KRW, accounting for 22.4% of the total payment amount (2.2753 trillion KRW). This represents an increase of 11.8 percentage points compared to the 10.6% (130.6 billion KRW) share paid for the same range before the reform (2019).

Payments of 801.6 billion KRW will be made to paddy rice farms (361,000 hectares), 378.4 billion KRW to dry field farms (167,000 hectares), and 1.0953 trillion KRW to farms cultivating both paddy and dry fields (600,000 hectares).

The estimated Basic Public Interest Direct Payment for dry fields is 643.6 billion KRW, accounting for 28.3% of the total payment amount, which is an increase of 12.1 percentage points compared to the 16.2% (199.6 billion KRW) share paid to dry fields before the reform.

The Basic Public Interest Direct Payment will be sequentially deposited into applicants' accounts through city, county, and district (eup, myeon, dong) offices starting today.

Since local governments will verify farmers' accounts and apply reductions for compliance violations, the payment dates for farmers are expected to vary by region. However, each local government plans to expedite related administrative procedures so that farmers can receive payments as soon as possible.

Park Sujin, Director of Food Policy at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said, "Despite the limited preparation time between the passage of the Public Interest Direct Payment Act in the National Assembly and its implementation date, thanks to the active cooperation of field workers and farmers, the public interest direct payments were carried out relatively smoothly. Considering the difficulties faced by agriculture and rural areas due to COVID-19, typhoons, and heavy rains, we have done our best to make early payments compared to the original plan, and we will thoroughly manage the process until the final payments are completed."

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