Ahn Cheol-soo: "Food Sovereignty Is a Matter of Life and Death"… Announces Agricultural Policy Vision

On the 4th, Attended Presidential Candidate Agricultural Policy Vision Presentation... "Food Sovereignty Important from National Security Perspective"

Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the People’s Party, is presenting his agricultural policy vision at the "Choice 2022! Presidential Candidate Agricultural Policy Vision Presentation" hosted by the Korea Agricultural Management Association Central Federation, held on the afternoon of the 4th at Jamsil Student Gymnasium in Songpa-gu, Seoul. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporters Kum Boryeong, Kwon Hyunji] Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the People’s Party, has emphasized the necessity of 'food sovereignty' for the future of agriculture.

On the afternoon of the 4th, Ahn attended the presidential candidate’s agricultural policy vision presentation held at the Jamsil Sports Complex Student Gymnasium in Songpa-gu, Seoul, and stated, "Food sovereignty is a matter of life and death," adding, "From the perspective of national security, food sovereignty is extremely important."

Ahn first argued that the direct payment system should be expanded to stabilize farmers’ income. He proposed subdividing the current public interest direct payment system, which is divided into basic and selective types. He particularly emphasized that the proportion of direct payments in farm income should be increased to about 10%. Ahn explained, "Currently, with a budget of about 2.4 trillion won, it is necessary to gradually expand it to 5 trillion won, which is about double, by utilizing additional resources through expenditure restructuring."

Ahn also mentioned the need to establish long-term grain supply and demand measures and set grain self-sufficiency rate targets to secure food sovereignty. He plans to create a comprehensive plan for establishing, promoting, and evaluating the grain self-sufficiency rate target to raise the current 21% grain self-sufficiency rate to 30% in the first phase and to build a system for implementation monitoring.

Ahn believes that stabilizing agricultural product prices through expanding contract farming and providing distribution information is also necessary. He said, "We need to identify if there are any problems with the current contract farming and find ways to create a proper win-win situation. We also need to expand information on production areas as well as wholesale and consumer markets," adding, "The government’s role is to build a system that provides such information to farmers so they can use it efficiently. I believe this will help stabilize agricultural product prices."

Given the increasing frequency of natural disasters, he said strengthening agricultural disaster compensation is necessary. He pointed out issues such as the large number of non-insurable items in crop disaster insurance, the 20% self-pay insurance premium, surcharges when receiving insurance payouts, and defensive damage assessments by loss adjusters. Ahn stated, "We need to enact the Agricultural Disaster Compensation Act to strengthen the public nature of crop disaster compensation."

In addition, Ahn raised his voice for creating a mutually prosperous rural community by securing agricultural manpower and guaranteeing the basic right to food for domestic agricultural products. He said, "In conclusion, the People’s Party aims to create smart agricultural and fishing villages that protect public health and food sovereignty," adding, "Going one step further, we want to be a party that opens the future by not just talking about the 6th industrialization but actually making it happen to produce significant added value."

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