Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Budget Exceeds 18 Trillion Won for the First Time... 980 Billion Won Increase from This Year

Confirmed 18.3392 Trillion Won Budget for Next Year at National Assembly Plenary Session

The 2024 budget for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs was approved by the National Assembly plenary session on the 21st, marking an increase of 981.8 billion KRW from the previous year (17.3574 trillion KRW) to 18.3392 trillion KRW, surpassing 18 trillion KRW for the first time. The budget growth rate for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs next year is 5.7%, more than twice the national total expenditure growth rate of 2.8%.

An official from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs stated, "This is evaluated as a result of the growing recognition of the importance of agriculture as a national key industry responsible for the people's food supply and as a future growth industry, despite difficult fiscal conditions."

The 2024 budget for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs focuses on projects such as expanding direct payments to farmers to around 3.1 trillion KRW to strengthen farmers' income and management safety nets; expanding support for strategic crop industrialization (36.3 billion KRW → 45.3 billion KRW) to secure food sovereignty; increasing support for young farmers' settlement (4,000 → 5,000 people) and public rental of reserved farmland (765 billion KRW → 1.07 trillion KRW) to foster young farmers; projects for digital transformation of agriculture including the establishment of startup-type smart farming complexes for youth (new 30 billion KRW); fostering new industries with high future growth potential such as food tech and green bio, including the establishment of an advanced green bio analysis system (new 5 billion KRW) to enhance synergy with agriculture; and projects to improve aging irrigation facilities (554.8 billion KRW → 613.2 billion KRW) to strengthen response capabilities against natural disasters whose frequency and intensity are increasing due to climate change.

During the National Assembly budget review process, a total of 88.3 billion KRW was additionally allocated to 37 projects, including support for mineral fertilizer prices (28.8 billion KRW) and fuel price-linked subsidies for facility horticulture farmers (7 billion KRW) to reduce farmers' management cost burdens; livelihood stabilization projects to ease inflation burdens such as "Thousand-Won Breakfast" (4.8 billion KRW) and support funds for the restaurant industry (170 million KRW, loan scale 50 billion KRW); vaccination costs (15.7 billion KRW) to prevent recurrence of livestock infectious diseases such as Lumpy Skin Disease; and projects for future growth industrialization of agriculture such as green bio material production facilities (200 million KRW) and smart agriculture incubation centers (2.5 billion KRW). On the other hand, budgets were adjusted (-82.1 billion KRW) for projects with poor execution or some preliminary projects, including insect microorganism industry promotion support (-4.3 billion KRW), rental-type smart farms (-4.2 billion KRW), and climate change response center establishment (-300 million KRW).

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plans to thoroughly prepare for budget execution by promptly proceeding with necessary procedures for project implementation so that the 2024 budget can resolve difficulties in agriculture and rural areas and help agriculture leap forward as a future growth industry.

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