Gangwon-do to Implement 'Half-Price Agricultural Materials Support' Starting Next Year

Next Year’s Agricultural Supplies Support Tripled... Gradual Annual Expansion Until 2026
784 Billion KRW National Funding · 28 Billion KRW Provincial Projects... Total Support of 106.4 Billion KRW

Kim Myung-seon, Deputy Governor of Gangwon Province, announced plans for a half-price agricultural materials support project to stabilize agricultural management within the province starting next year at a press conference held at the Gangwon Provincial Office on the 22nd. [Gangwon Province]

[Asia Economy Reporter La Young-cheol] Gangwon Province will implement the 'Half-Price Agricultural Materials Support Project,' a campaign promise of Governor Kim Jin-tae, starting next year.

This is the first project nationwide where administrative agencies and farmers each bear half of the cost of agricultural materials. The province has focused on three main points for the 'Half-Price Agricultural Materials Support.'

First, in 2023, a total of 57.2 billion KRW will be newly allocated for the 'Half-Price Agricultural Materials Support' centered on small-scale farmers, with plans to gradually expand the program step-by-step every year until 2026.

Support will be expanded to all items including fertilizers, pesticides, facility materials, and seed costs.

The target is farms with a cultivation area of less than 10,000㎡, and the support scale, including the farmers' 50% self-payment, is up to 600,000 KRW annually for rice paddies and up to 1.8 million KRW annually for dry fields.

Support will be detailed and broad, focusing on small-scale farms with farming sizes from 0.1ha (300 pyeong) to 1ha (3,000 pyeong), but farms larger than 1ha will also be supported within the limit to avoid exclusion.

The intention is to strengthen support for small-scale farms that have been neglected in various support programs. It is expected that about 70% of farms in Gangwon Province will benefit.

The provincial budget investment has been tripled to 13.2 billion KRW, adding 8.6 billion KRW for half-price agricultural materials support to the existing 4.6 billion KRW for provincial projects.

Next, the existing agricultural materials support projects totaling 106.4 billion KRW, including 78.4 billion KRW in national subsidies and 28 billion KRW in provincial projects, will continue.

Next year, the province's own agricultural materials support projects will gradually expand to 30.5 billion KRW across 17 projects (4.9 billion KRW provincial funds, 11.7 billion KRW city/county funds, and 13.9 billion KRW self-payment).

In particular, this year, through a supplementary budget adjustment, 80% of the price increase for mineral fertilizers, whose prices surged due to international raw material supply instability, is being subsidized.

Additionally, the agricultural machinery rental business will continue to expand, and tax-exempt fuel support will be appropriately adjusted to international oil prices, increasing from 6 billion KRW this year to 9 billion KRW next year.

Kim Myung-seon, Deputy Governor of Gangwon Province, said, "The core of the half-price agricultural materials support is to reduce the management burden on farmers, and we will prepare various measures necessary for the development of agriculture and rural areas and the increase of farmers' income."

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