Jinju-si to Supply 3.5 Million Bags of Organic Fertilizer Early This Year

40 Billion KRW Invested to Ensure Timely Farming, 70,000 Tons Distributed to 11,744 Farms

Panorama of Jinju Agricultural Technology Center (Photo by Jinju)

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Soon-kyung] Jinju City, Gyeongnam Province, announced on the 15th that it will invest a budget of 4.15 billion KRW this year to support 70,000 tons of organic fertilizer to 11,744 farms.

The organic fertilizer support project promotes the recycling of by-products from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, contributes to fostering sustainable eco-friendly agriculture through improving soil fertility and preserving the soil environment, and supports environmentally friendly natural circulation agriculture and the production of high-quality safe agricultural products.

This year, the supported types include a total of five kinds: three types of organic fertilizers (mixed solid, mixed organic, organic compound fertilizer) and two types of decomposed organic fertilizers (livestock manure compost, compost).

For each 20kg bag of fertilizer, 1,600 KRW is supported for organic fertilizer and 1,500 KRW for by-product fertilizer. In accordance with the mandatory implementation of compost decomposition standards, Jinju City provides an additional incentive of 300 KRW per bag for 1 million bags of livestock manure compost produced by local fertilizer manufacturers using livestock manure from livestock farms within Jinju.

A change from last year is that if farmers who applied to receive fertilizer by the end of September do not receive it by that time, it will be considered as forfeited quantity.

Farmers who apply to receive fertilizer between October and December and do not use it by the end of the year without expressing their intention to forfeit by the end of September will face a 20% reduction in support for the next year's project, applying a penalty for unused fertilizer.

Jinju City held an organic fertilizer supply management council in January and decided to reduce the supply volume by 20% this year for 141 farms that applied for but did not receive compost last year, and to exclude one farm that did not receive compost for the past two years from the project for three years.

A city official stated, “Organic fertilizer will be supplied early from mid-February before the farming season to avoid any inconvenience to farming,” and added, “We plan to conduct sample collection and distribution inspections in the future to manage the quality of organic fertilizer. Farmers are strongly advised to build a foundation for producing eco-friendly agricultural products by using high-quality organic fertilizer and to pay special attention to the receipt and settlement management of organic fertilizer.”

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