Naju City to Distribute 'Basic Public Interest Direct Payments' to 14,445 Farms

[Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yukbong] Naju City, Jeollanam-do (Mayor Kang In-gyu) announced on the 29th that it will pay the 2021 Basic Public Interest Direct Payment by the end of this month.

Now in its second year of implementation, the Public Interest Direct Payment system is a program that provides direct payments to farmers who meet certain qualifications and comply with requirements to promote the public functions of agriculture and rural areas and stabilize farmers' incomes.

The city received applications and registrations from April to May, and after verification of eligible farmland, farmers, and small-scale direct payment requirements, as well as compliance inspections, it confirmed approximately 14,650 eligible farms and farmers.

The total support scale is 31 billion KRW, covering an area of 15,315 hectares.

Recipients of the public interest direct payment are farms registered with agricultural management entity information and are classified into 'Small-scale Direct Payment' and 'Area-based Direct Payment' according to eligibility criteria.

The Small-scale Direct Payment provides 1.2 million KRW per farm unit regardless of area if all small-scale qualifications are met.

The Area-based Direct Payment is paid by applying standard unit prices according to cultivation area segments and farmland types.

Among these, 5.7 billion KRW is paid to 4,735 farms under the Small-scale Direct Payment, and 24.6 billion KRW is paid to 9,710 farms under the Area-based Direct Payment.

The city plans to prioritize payment of 30.3 billion KRW to 14,445 farms corresponding to the first installment by the end of this month.

Subsequently, it will accept and review objections from those subject to reductions and plans to pay the second installment by mid-next month.

Starting this year, through joint inspections with the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service, a 10% reduction of the total amount will be applied and direct payments will be made to farmers who fail to comply with 17 public interest direct payment requirements such as maintaining farmland shape and function, safe use of pesticides, and those who applied for retired farmland.

An official from the Agricultural Technology Center said, "In a situation where the farming burden is increasing due to rural labor shortages caused by COVID-19, heavy rains, and abnormal weather, we hope that the public interest direct payment will help stabilize the management of small and medium-sized farms even a little."

Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yukbong bong2910@asiae.co.kr

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