Jeongeup-si Promotes 'Return-to-Farming Agricultural Startup and Housing Purchase Support Project'

Published 22 Feb.2022 13:52(KST)

[Jeongeup=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Jaegil] Jeongeup City in Jeonbuk announced on the 22nd that it will promote the ‘Return-to-Farming Agricultural Startup and Housing Purchase Support Project’ to help urban residents who wish to return to farming plan a new life and provide stable settlement support.

The city plans to actively support farming settlement, including agricultural production activities and securing residential space, so that returnees to farming, whose lifestyles completely change, can settle stably in rural areas.

The ‘Return-to-Farming Agricultural Startup and Housing Purchase Support Project’ is an interest subsidy project that uses agricultural funds to provide low-interest loans for credit and secured loans, with the government budget covering the difference between the loan interest rate and the low interest rate.

The loan interest rate is 2% per annum, and the repayment method is a 5-year grace period followed by 10 years of equal principal installment repayment.

The loan limit per household is 300 million KRW for agricultural startup funds and 75 million KRW for housing purchase funds.

The loan amount is finally determined within the loan limit based on the applicant’s business performance and the credit and collateral evaluation by the lending institution.

Applicants must be household heads aged 65 or younger as of the application year, who have lived in urban areas for more than one year and have moved to rural areas within the past five years, or non-agricultural residents in rural areas who have completed more than 100 hours of return-to-farming and farming education.

In particular, non-agricultural residents in rural areas can only apply for agricultural startup funds, must have been registered residents in rural areas for more than one year as of the application date, and can only apply if they have no farming experience within the last five years.

However, those who have full-time jobs in industries other than agriculture or hold business registration certificates in other industries besides agriculture are not eligible for support.

Applications must be submitted in person with the application form and required documents to the local town, township, or neighborhood office by the 4th of next month.

The city plans to finalize the recipients by reflecting the results of in-depth interviews by the screening committee and the evaluation by the lending institutions.

An official from the Agricultural Technology Center said, “We will strive to revitalize rural areas, where the population is declining due to aging and industrialization, by implementing various support policies so that returnees who have chosen the city as their second happy home can settle stably in rural areas.”