NongHyup Central Association Establishes Four Major Goals to Address 'Rural Disappearance'... "Implementing Tasks in the Second Half of the Year"

Lee Seong-hee, President of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, is announcing four major goals to strengthen the role of the Federation in addressing the national crisis of rural extinction and creating vibrant rural communities during a meeting with reporters covering the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs held in Sejong City.

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kim Hyewon] The National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) has presented four major goals to strengthen its role in addressing the national crisis of rural extinction and creating vibrant rural communities.

On the 27th, Lee Seonghee, Chairman of the NACF, stated, "We have established practical tasks to realize vibrant rural areas, robust agriculture, prosperous farmers, and a trusted NACF, and plan to implement them in the second half of the year."

First, to create vibrant and desirable rural communities, the NACF plans to promote a nationwide ‘100-Year Rural Movement’ involving the public, government, and corporations. Through this, they aim to overcome the challenges of agricultural product market liberalization and rural extinction while enhancing agricultural competitiveness. Additionally, they will expand agricultural product demand by leading initiatives such as the Dorongsa (社)rang Movement, a mutual exchange project between agricultural cooperatives and corporations, and the establishment of the Hometown Love Donation System.

Second, to foster robust agriculture and industrialize agriculture’s future growth, the NACF will advance the digital farming integrated platform ‘Oneul Nongsa’ and help digitalization become a daily practice throughout agriculture. In particular, to promote smart farms, they plan to establish a comprehensive support system including ▲discovering affordable smart farm models ▲cultivating 300 leading smart farm households by 2027 ▲providing annual comprehensive consulting.

Third, to nurture prosperous farmers, the NACF launched on July 1 a ‘New Start Rural Hope Low-Interest Loan’ product (up to 50 million KRW per person, minimum 2.0% interest rate, with a 1 trillion KRW limit) as a measure to stabilize farm management and alleviate financial burdens.

Fourth, to realize a trusted NACF, they will enhance external trust through principled management focused on fundamentals and continue social contribution activities for public happiness.

Chairman Lee said, "We plan to launch a new rural movement to resolve the national crisis of rural extinction," adding, "We will overcome the crisis in agriculture and rural areas to create a ‘vibrant rural community again’ where our farmers can focus solely on agriculture."

In addition, on June 7, the NACF announced a 360 billion KRW policy called ‘Warm Companionship with the People’ to join the nationwide effort to overcome difficulties caused by rising prices and support farmers’ management stability. As of July 15, 192.3 billion KRW has been supported, reaching a progress rate of 54.3%. For example, 108 billion KRW and 83 billion KRW will be spent respectively to reduce feed costs for livestock farmers and supply fuel at low prices at NACF gas stations.

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