Nonggwanwon Begins Full-Scale Compliance Inspections for Farmers Applying for Public Interest Direct Payments

Inspection of Farmers' Compliance with Maintaining Farmland Shape and Function, Safe Use of Pesticides, and Other Requirements

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Chunsu Kim] The Damyang Office of the Jeonnam Branch of the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service (Director Kim Seongdam, hereinafter referred to as ‘NAQS’) announced on the 8th that it will conduct compliance inspections for three months from July 1 to September 30 to verify whether the compliance requirements such as maintaining the shape and function of farmland are being met for the basic-type public interest direct payment application plots.

The public interest direct payment system was first implemented in 2020 to promote the public interest functions of agriculture and rural areas and to stabilize farmers’ incomes, and this year marks its second year of implementation.

NAQS inspects whether the applicant farms for direct payments properly comply with obligations such as maintaining the shape and function of farmland and safe use of pesticides, and notifies the local governments of the results.

The compliance inspections target plots suspected of non-compliance, such as those identified as abandoned farmland using aerial images of plots from the previous year’s non-compliant plots and new public interest direct payment applicants. For accurate and efficient inspections, the inspections are conducted by combining on-site investigations by surveyors with aerial images and unmanned aerial vehicles (drones).

If non-compliant application details such as abandoned farmland area are confirmed through the compliance inspections, NAQS notifies the relevant local governments. Based on the inspection results notified by NAQS, the local governments exclude the non-compliant application area from the payment target and reduce the total direct payment amount received by the farmer by 10%.

However, for the newly introduced compliance items in last year’s inspections?proper disposal of agricultural waste, village community joint activities, and the obligation to prepare and keep farming records?‘warning’ measures will be applied until this year, and reductions will be gradually applied starting in 2022.

An NAQS official said, “We plan to thoroughly promote compliance inspections so that public interest direct payments can be supported to farmers who comply with the requirements such as maintaining farmland shape and function and safe pesticide use,” and added, “We ask farmers applying for public interest direct payments to faithfully comply with the requirements and actively cooperate to ensure smooth progress of the compliance inspections.”

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