Song Miryeong, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, "Will Mitigate Agricultural Product Price Volatility and Establish Income Safety Net for Farmers"

2024 New Year's Address

Song Miryeong, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, stated on the 1st, "We will stabilize farm income by mitigating agricultural product price volatility and thoroughly responding to livestock diseases, and protect the safety of agricultural and livestock products."

In her New Year's address, Minister Song said, "We will improve the system to increase the price difference compensation rate so that the Vegetable Price Stabilization System can be established as a practical risk management tool, and enhance the subscription rate focusing on items with high supply and demand instability. To establish a sustainable livestock industry foundation, we will formulate mid- to long-term development plans for the Hanwoo and dairy industries, and transition to environmentally friendly livestock farming through smart livestock farming and energy conversion of livestock manure."

Song Miryeong, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Photo by Kang Jinhyung aymsdream@

She also emphasized building a reliable income and management safety net for farmers. She explained, "To stabilize farm management in response to agricultural disasters, we will increase the number of agricultural disaster insurance target items to 73 and expand the nationwide operational disaster insurance items to 55. We will also consider expanding compensation products for natural disaster-related pest damage, which are currently operated on a limited basis."

The government plans to support agricultural direct payments of 3.1 trillion won, an increase of 300 billion won compared to 2023. The unit price of small-scale farm direct payments will be raised from 1.2 million won to 1.3 million won, and a new carbon-neutral program for farmland transfer retirement direct payments will be introduced. The items covered by income guarantee insurance will be expanded to 10 by adding barley, wheat, and corn. To reduce management cost burdens, support for mineral fertilizer price differences and feed purchase funds will continue, and heating costs for facility horticulture will also be supported.

Along with this, Minister Song expressed her determination to innovate agriculture through the convergence of agriculture and ICT to expand growth engines and make it an industry attractive to young people. She said, "Following the enforcement of the Smart Agriculture Promotion Act, we will implement a five-year plan for smart agriculture development, introduce a manager system, designate promotion zones, and spread solutions that allow farmers to easily cultivate high-quality crops using advanced technologies. We will increase the number of recipients of the young farmer settlement support fund to 5,000 and expand land supply for young people, including youth start-up smart agriculture complexes, to 1.24 trillion won."

Additionally, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plans to create four additional rental-type smart farms to expand the entry of graduates from the Smart Farm Innovation Valley incubation center into smart agriculture. To expand K-agriculture and food exports, it will promote the establishment of a specialized logistics system for fresh agricultural products and expand support for agricultural and food export vouchers for export companies. It will also fully support new market entry, including expanding mutual recognition of halal certification and early market development through export quarantine negotiations.

Finally, Minister Song said, "To address the issue of rural extinction, which is losing vitality due to weakening rural growth engines and population decline, we will prepare comprehensive measures focusing on revitalizing the rural economy, rationalizing regulations, and expanding social service provision. We will pilot operate five workation models and actively promote policies such as expanding the limited demonstration exceptions for lodging businesses utilizing vacant rural houses to revitalize rural communities."

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