Haenam-gun, Full-Scale Effort to Support Rural Farm Labor Assistance

Starting from the 12th, full support for labor shortages during the farming season will be accelerated

Employees of the Agricultural Technology Center are visiting farms cultivating night pumpkins to assist with tasks such as thinning. (Photo by Haenam-gun)

[Haenam＝Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Hyun] Haenam County, Jeollanam-do announced on the 12th that due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic causing difficulties in securing foreign labor, resulting in a significant increase in agricultural labor costs and growing hardships for farming households, the schedule for rural labor assistance by public officials and local institutions and organizations is being advanced.

Accordingly, the usual single round of public officials' rural labor assistance will be increased to 2 to 3 rounds, and the program will continue to operate until June.

On the 12th, employees of the Agricultural Technology Center visited farms cultivating bam hobak (Kabocha squash) to lend support. Facility vegetables like bam hobak typically employ many regularly hired foreign workers, but since last year, due to difficulties in foreign worker entry, the shortage of labor has had to be compensated by family labor.

On that day, the Agricultural Technology Center staff helped with agricultural tasks such as training the stems and pruning side shoots in the bam hobak cultivation fields.

The county plans to conduct the first round of labor assistance involving all 700 public officials by June 4, the garlic and onion harvest season, focusing on elderly farmers and women farmers within the county, covering an area of 4 hectares.

Additionally, cooperation will be requested from military units, related organizations, and volunteer groups to promote a county-wide citizen labor assistance campaign. Except for essential duties, public work and other job-related projects will be suspended during the busy farming season.

Starting this month, Haenam County has established a manpower support situation room at the county office, towns, and the Nonghyup (Korean Agricultural Cooperative) to recruit and mediate between farms in need of labor and rural job participants (volunteers). On the 18th, a meeting will be held with 56 local employment agencies to discuss measures addressing rising labor costs and labor supply issues.

Earlier, on the 7th, County Governor Myeong Hyeon-gwan held an executive meeting to establish plans to resolve issues such as rising labor costs and unauthorized business operations through close cooperation with labor agencies, and instructed related departments to respond actively.

Governor Myeong said, “Since foreign workers’ entry has been restricted after COVID-19, not only is there a labor shortage, but labor costs have risen, causing many difficulties for farming households. We hope that by mobilizing all personnel including public officials, related organizations, and volunteer groups to support public activities, we can help alleviate the labor shortage in rural areas even a little.”

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