Gyeongsangnam-do Invests 102.4 Billion Won to Foster 'Young Farmers' Leading Future Agriculture

Smart Farm Training Photo.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Ju-cheol In] Gyeongsangnam-do will invest 12.4 billion KRW this year to support 'young farmers' who will lead future agriculture.

On the 16th, Gyeongnam Province announced that it will promote 11 projects including farming settlement and sustainable growth to nurture prospective young farmers.

In the introductory stage of nurturing prospective young farmers, support will be provided for practical training farms at agricultural high schools and agricultural universities, and a Smart Farm Youth Startup Incubation Center will be operated.

Additionally, a management practice rental farm will be operated, and a young farmer employment internship program will be conducted.

Support for practical training farms at agricultural schools includes providing smart farm facilities and equipment worth about 1.54 billion KRW to Gyeongnam Jaeyoung High School, Gimhae Life Science High School, Gyeongsang National University, and others to support advanced agricultural technology education.

The Smart Farm Youth Startup Incubation Center will be operated at the 'Gyeongnam Smart Farm Innovation Valley,' which invests a total of 90.4 billion KRW to promote co-growth of agriculture and related industries using information and communication technology (ICT).

The management practice rental farm and employment internship program allow young people with little farming experience to rent facility greenhouses or receive practical training at agricultural corporations to learn management techniques.

For young farmers in the farming settlement stage, projects such as young successor farmer settlement, young farmer employment direct payment system, and successor agricultural manager development will be promoted.

The young successor farmer settlement program provides living stabilization funds of up to 1 million KRW per month for up to three years to young farmers aged 18 to under 40.

The young farmer employment direct payment system provides living stabilization farming settlement support funds of 1 million KRW per month for up to one year to young farmers excluded from national support projects.

The successor agricultural manager development program selects successor agricultural managers aged 18 to under 50 and provides loans of up to 300 million KRW per person to establish a startup foundation such as purchasing or leasing farmland.

To ensure the sustainable growth of young farmers, community revitalization projects, customized consulting projects, and a childbirth voucher support project for female farmers will be implemented. The community revitalization project supports 12 clubs composed of young farmers aged 18 to under 45 with 120 million KRW.

Customized consulting provides specialized counseling for young farmers' crop-specific cultivation technology education. The female farmer childbirth voucher project, newly launched this year, provides 1 million KRW per month for nine months to female farmers aged 19 to under 40 who have given birth.

Jung Yeon-sang, Director of the Agricultural Policy Bureau of Gyeongnam Province, said, "With customized support for young farmers, the number of young farmers under 40 increased by 126%, from 19,006 in 2019 to 23,926 in 2020," and added, "We will strengthen customized support for young farmers who will lead future agriculture."

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