Gangwon Province Begins Distributing 149.8 Billion Won in Basic Public Direct Payments to 83,000 Farming Households

Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province (Governor Kim Jin-tae) announced on December 1 that it began distributing a total of 149.8 billion won in "2025 Basic Public Direct Payments" starting November 28, in order to enhance the public functions of agriculture and rural areas and stabilize farmers' incomes.

Exterior view of Gangwon Provincial Government Building. Provided by Gangwon Provincial Government

The public direct payment system is a policy that provides direct payments to farmers to enhance the public functions of agriculture and rural areas and stabilize farmers' incomes. Public direct payments include the small-scale farmer direct payment, which provides 1.3 million won per household to small-scale farmers with less than 0.5 hectares of farmland, and the area-based direct payment, which is paid according to a fixed rate per hectare (1.36 to 2.15 million won/ha) based on farmland size.

The province will distribute the basic public direct payments to a total of 83,000 eligible recipients in the province, amounting to 149.8 billion won in total. Of this, the small-scale farmer direct payment will be provided to 33,000 households (totaling 49.8 billion won), and the area-based direct payment will be provided to 50,000 farmers (totaling 100 billion won).

To strengthen the transparency and fairness of the public direct payment system, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province held a regional council meeting with the Gangwon branch of the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service in March to discuss measures to prevent fraudulent claims and conducted training for relevant personnel.

From February to May, applications for public direct payments were accepted. Between June and October, the province analyzed information such as those who failed to submit cultivation confirmation documents and long-term care recipients, and conducted intensive checks on 4,335 selected inspection targets, successfully blocking fraudulent claims in advance for 66 individuals.

In addition, through inspections of compliance items (16 categories) such as maintaining the shape and function of farmland, the province applied a 10% reduction in direct payments to 767 individuals found to have insufficient farmland maintenance or violations of pesticide safety standards.

As of November 28, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province has completed the allocation of public direct payments to cities and counties. Each local government will sequentially distribute the payments after verifying farmers' bank accounts.

Seok Seonggyun, Director of the Agricultural Policy Bureau of Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province, stated, "We hope that the swift distribution of public direct payments will provide tangible support to farmers. Going forward, we will further strengthen inspections against violations of actual cultivation and fraudulent claims to protect farmers' rights and enhance the public value of agriculture and rural areas."

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