Ulju-gun Begins Application Intake for This Year's Basic Public Interest Direct Payment

Ulsan's Ulju-gun announced on the 5th that it is accepting applications for the '2025 Basic Public Interest Direct Payment' project aimed at enhancing the public functions of agriculture and rural areas and stabilizing farmers' income.

Applications for participation can be submitted online (non-face-to-face) until the 28th of this month, and from the 4th of next month until April 30th, applications can be submitted in person at the administrative welfare centers of the towns and townships where the farmland is located.

Non-face-to-face applicants are farmers who had no changes in their basic direct payment registration information last year and agricultural management entity registration information this year, and who were deemed eligible through a preliminary qualification verification. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs will provide prior guidance to these farmers via smartphone.

The basic public interest direct payment is divided into small-scale direct payments and area-based direct payments. Small-scale direct payments are given to farms cultivating between 0.1 ha and 0.5 ha, with eligibility requirements including continuous residence in rural areas for 3 years and continuous farming activity for 3 years, among 8 criteria. Eligible households receive 1.3 million KRW per household.

Area-based direct payments are made to eligible farmland, distinguishing between paddy fields and dry fields within agricultural promotion areas and those outside such areas, applying a regressive unit price by area segment. Notably, this year’s unit price for area-based direct payments has increased by 5% compared to last year, ranging from 1.36 million KRW to 2.15 million KRW per hectare.

Applicants for the basic direct payment will be confirmed as recipients if they maintain eligibility requirements, sustain their agricultural management entity on the eligible farmland until September 30, and no disqualifying factors arise from on-site inspections.

Recipients must faithfully comply with public interest direct payment obligations such as participating in village community activities and completing education; failure to comply will result in a 10% reduction of the total direct payment amount. Payments are planned to begin at the end of November.

An official from Ulju-gun stated, “With the increase in this year’s unit price for area-based direct payments, we hope it will contribute to stabilizing farmers’ income,” and added, “We urge recipients to faithfully fulfill the public interest direct payment obligations to avoid disadvantages such as payment reductions.”

Ulju County Office.

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