Haenam-gun Selected as Jeonnam Province Candidate Site for Agricultural and Food Climate Change Response Center

High Evaluation for Securing Business Site and Attracting Residents, Full Effort for Final Selection in September

The Haenam County Association of Eco-friendly Farmers is conducting a campaign to attract the Agri-food Climate Change Response Center. / ⓒ Asia Economy

[Haenam＝Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Hyun] Haenam-gun, Jeollanam-do, has been selected as the Jeollanam-do candidate site for the Agricultural and Food Climate Change Response Center, a public project organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

According to the county on the 25th, following document screening, presentations, and on-site evaluations conducted from the 20th to the 24th, Haenam-gun received the highest evaluation among five candidate sites in the province and was selected as the Jeollanam-do candidate site.

In particular, the purchase of the project site to attract the Agricultural and Food Climate Change Response Center and the establishment of a foundation to promptly commence the project were highly evaluated.

Haenam-gun purchased a 34-hectare project site in the Pyeonghwal-ri area of Samsan-myeon and plans to relocate the Jeonnam Agricultural Research and Extension Services Fruit Research Institute, scheduled to move to a site adjacent to the project site, by 2024. All preparations have been completed to promote the project simultaneously with the center's attraction.

Additionally, efforts to strengthen capabilities, such as signing business agreements with climate change-related institutions and conducting targeted education to raise awareness among residents, were also prominently recognized in the evaluation.

Since last year, the county has successively signed business agreements with the Gwangju Regional Meteorological Administration, the Provincial Agricultural Research and Extension Services, Seoul National University, Chonnam National University, Suncheon National University, TmaxSoft, and Farm8, establishing a cooperative system to enable efficient policy support through public-private-academic collaboration.

The strong desire to attract the center and raise awareness of climate change is considered a major strength, with numerous lectures conducted by distinguished instructors from the Korea Rural Economic Institute and Chonnam National University for the county council, public officials, and farmers.

Regarding this center competition, a passionate participation of residents from various sectors, centered on local agricultural organizations, has been ignited, including a hopeful SNS campaign for attraction and a county-wide signature campaign aiming for 50% of all residents' signatures.

The Agricultural and Food Climate Change Response Center is a large-scale national project with a total budget of 407.9 billion KRW (including operating costs), responsible for establishing national plans such as strategies and policy directions for responding to the global climate crisis and serving as a control tower for agricultural climate change.

As the largest agricultural county and the gateway to climate change on the Korean Peninsula, Ttangkkeut is about 1 degree Celsius warmer than the national average temperature and is expected to enter a subtropical climate in the mid to late 2020s.

Due to these climatic characteristics, about 190 farms cultivate subtropical crops such as figs, kiwifruit, bananas, and apple mangoes over an area of approximately 120 hectares.

Accordingly, the county is actively promoting the attraction of the Agricultural and Food Climate Change Response Center to respond to climate change in the agricultural sector, which is experiencing the most direct crisis.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs will make the final site selection on September 17.

County Governor Myeong Hyun-gwan said, “I am confident that Ttangkkeut Haenam, the gateway to climate change, will be the most suitable area as the control tower for the agricultural sector to respond to climate change and support the government's 2050 carbon neutrality plan. We will concentrate all administrative power on attracting the Agricultural and Food Climate Change Response Center by gathering the will of the residents, utilizing the project promotion capabilities we have proactively prepared, and maximizing the geographical advantages of Ttangkkeut Haenam.”

Haenam=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Hyun kh0424@asiae.co.kr

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