Muju-gun Supports Monthly Salaries for Farmers in 204 Households This Year

Published 29 Mar.2022 15:28(KST)

12 Items Including Apples Targeted... Average Monthly Benefit of About 1.4 Million Won Per Farm

Muju County Office

[Muju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Han-ho] Muju County announced on the 29th that it will support agricultural workers' monthly salaries for 240 farms this year as well.

The agricultural workers' monthly salary system was introduced in 2018 to alleviate the economic burden of farming expenses and living costs during the off-harvest season, as farm income is concentrated during the harvest period. It serves as a steady source of regular income for farms during periods of irregular income.

This year's support targets 204 farms that signed contracts with the Nonghyup (National Agricultural Cooperative Federation) and shipment agreements (including self-purchase, auction market shipment, and cooperative shipment methods) by the 12th of this month.

The applicable 12 items (1,184 tons) include apples, grapes, peaches, Cheonma (Gastrodia elata), chili peppers, rice, blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes, omija (Schisandra chinensis), aronia, and flowers.

The agricultural workers' monthly salary is paid monthly by the Nonghyup (Muju Nonghyup with 81 farms, Gucheon-dong Nonghyup with 123 farms), which signed contracts with the farms for agricultural product shipments, within 50% of the contracted amount over six months from April to September (monthly 300,000 to 1,500,000 KRW). Muju County supports this by compensating the interest.

Muju County plans to invest about 45 million KRW for interest compensation (5.0%) and agency fees (0.5%).

The Nonghyup stated that the monthly salaries applied for by 204 farms in six towns and townships this year amount to 1.724 billion KRW annually (about 287 million KRW monthly), and the average monthly payment per farm over six months will be about 1.4 million KRW.

According to Muju County, the average annual application amount for agricultural workers' monthly salaries over the past four years was about 1.6 billion KRW, with an average monthly payment of 1,395,000 KRW.