Jangseong-gun Distributes 15.2 Billion KRW in Public Direct Payments to Over 9,100 Farms

Jangseong-gun, Jeollanam-do will sequentially pay 15.2 billion KRW in basic public interest direct payments starting from the 12th.

According to the county on the 11th, the basic public interest direct payment is a support system for farmers aimed at creating public values such as food safety, environmental conservation, and rural maintenance, and is divided into small-scale direct payments and area-based direct payments.

Jangseong-gun Government Office. [Photo by Jangseong-gun]

The small-scale direct payment applies to farms that meet eight payment conditions including ▲cultivated area between 0.1 hectares (ha) and 0.5 hectares ▲continuous residence in rural areas for three years ▲engagement in farming for three years. Each household can receive 1.2 million KRW in direct payments.

The area-based direct payment is for farmers who do not qualify for the small-scale direct payment but meet related requirements, receiving payments according to the unit price applied by cultivated area brackets. Payments are made up to 30 hectares for individual farmers and 50 hectares for agricultural corporations.

This year, the county confirmed payments of 4.26 billion KRW in small-scale direct payments to 3,556 farms and 10.94 billion KRW in area-based direct payments to 5,551 farms.

Notably, the conditions were relaxed to allow farms that did not receive direct payments at least once between 2017 and 2019 to apply for support. As a result, the number of recipients increased by 807 compared to last year, and the payment amount increased by about 600 million KRW.

Earlier, the county accepted applications from February to May through non-face-to-face (online) and visits to eup/myeon administrative welfare centers.

Afterward, until last month, qualifications of farmers and farmland were verified, and compliance with direct payment requirements was checked, finalizing 9,107 farms as recipients this month.

County Governor Kim Han-jong said, “The unit price for small-scale direct payments is expected to increase to 1.3 million KRW from next year,” adding, “We plan to continue promoting various projects to support stable farming activities of local farmers.”

Jangseong = Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Jo Han-gyu baekok@asiae.co.kr