Minister Jeong Hwang-geun Visits Smart Farm: "We Will Nurture 30,000 Young Farmers"

Review of National Tasks such as Fostering Young Farmers and Developing Smart Agriculture
Comprehensive Measures to Support 'Initial Income, Funding, Farmland, and Housing'

Jung Hwang-geun, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, emphasized, "By nurturing 30,000 young farmers within the current administration, we will secure the sustainability of agriculture and rural areas and lay the foundation as a future growth industry."

On the 8th, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced that Minister Jung visited the smart farm 'Agricultural Corporation Mujuwon' for young farmers in Muju-gun on the 4th and held a meeting with young farmers. This meeting was organized to review the progress of government support policies for nurturing young farmers and developing smart agriculture, which are national tasks marking the first anniversary of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, and to listen to the opinions of young farmers. On that day, Minister Jung inspected smart farm cultivation facilities, automatic harvesters, and sorters, and encouraged the company representatives and employees.

The government has included 'industrialization of agriculture as a future growth industry' in its national tasks. It set the goal of 'nurturing 30,000 young farmers who will lead agricultural innovation and creating an innovative ecosystem in the agriculture and food sector,' and to achieve this, it announced the '1st Basic Plan for Successor and Young Farmer Development (2023?2027)' for the first time in October last year. Based on this basic plan, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is implementing comprehensive measures such as 'initial income, funding, farmland, and housing support' to nurture 30,000 young farmers.

To stabilize income in the early settlement phase, the ministry expanded the target of the Farming Settlement Support Project, which provides settlement support funds, from 2,000 people last year to 4,000 people this year, and increased the support amount from a maximum of 1 million KRW per month last year to a maximum of 1.1 million KRW per month this year. In addition, to alleviate the financial burden of young people lacking investment funds, the repayment period for policy funds was extended from 15 years last year to 25 years this year. The interest rate was also lowered from 2% to 1.5%, and the loan limit was increased from 300 million KRW to 500 million KRW.

Furthermore, the ministry secured as much farmland stock from the Farmland Bank as possible and introduced various farmland supply methods such as startup complexes. It also plans to improve rural living conditions by expanding the number of youth rural housing complexes, which include childcare, cultural, and leisure facilities, from 5 locations last year to 9 locations this year.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is promoting the spread of smart agriculture by supporting rental-type smart farms where young people can rent and directly farm smart farms for three years, and by providing long-term education courses at smart farm incubation centers.

Jeong Hwang-geun, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (center front row), visited the young farmers' smart farm "Agricultural Corporation Mujuwon" located in Anseong-myeon, Muju-gun, Jeollabuk-do on May 4th and held a meeting and took photos.

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