Rice Paddy Area Must Be Cut by 38,000 ha This Year... Expanding Strategic Crop Direct Payments and Promoting 'Rice for Supply-Demand Control'

MAFRA's 2026 Grain Supply and Demand Plan

The government has concluded that, in order to balance rice supply and demand this year, it is necessary to reduce the rice paddy cultivation area by 38,000 hectares. To this end, it will greatly expand the strategic crop direct payment program compared with last year and newly implement a project for 'rice for supply-demand control'.

On the 12th, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced that it had established the 2026 grain supply and demand plan and would begin in earnest to implement a systematic supply and demand policy for preemptively balancing rice supply and demand.

The Asia Business Daily Database

The ministry convened the Grain Supply and Demand Stabilization Committee on the 10th to discuss the 2026 grain supply and demand plan. It estimated that, to balance supply and demand for 2026 rice, the necessary rice paddy cultivation area should be around 640,000 hectares, which is about 38,000 hectares less than last year, and established the 2026 grain supply and demand plan on that basis. It also planned the necessary area for strategic crops at about 90,000 hectares to achieve rice supply-demand balance and set specific target areas by item to implement this.

Committee members who attended the meeting said it was highly meaningful that the government had created an opportunity to discuss the grain supply and demand plan with producer organizations, and they agreed with the direction of the plan, which calls for appropriate production aligned with demand.

The members also expressed concern about the soybean supply and demand situation. Accordingly, direct payments for Baektae (soybeans for Meju) and soybeans for bean sprouts will be maintained at the existing level. The 2026 strategic crop direct payment will be operated so that agricultural corporations and farmers who implemented Baektae and bean sprout soybean direct payment in the previous year can apply within their previous implementation area. If farmers who received Baektae and bean sprout soybean direct payments in the previous year switch back to rice, the government is reviewing measures to grant incentives such as priority allocation of public rice reserves.

Park Junghoon, Director General for Food Policy at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said, "Even for soybeans, where overproduction is a concern, we plan to pursue appropriate production without causing damage to existing participating farmers," adding, "To drive industrial innovation, we will flesh out the food industry innovation strategy established this time and implement it without disruption."

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