Pyeongtaek City Conducts Soil Testing on 645 Plots to Check Compliance with Direct Payment Standards

Pyeongtaek City in Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Jung Jang-seon) announced on April 10 that it will conduct soil testing on 645 plots to check compliance with chemical fertilizer usage standards under the "Act on Direct Payment to Promote Public Benefits in Agriculture and Rural Communities."

Compliance with chemical fertilizer usage standards is one of 16 mandatory requirements that farmers registered as recipients of basic direct payments must observe.

The Environmental Livestock Team at the Agricultural Technology Center will randomly select 645 plots among local farmland (rice paddies, fields, orchards, and greenhouse cultivation sites), collect soil samples directly, and examine whether chemical fertilizer usage standards are met through soil chemical composition testing.

There are four test items (pH, organic matter, available phosphorus, and exchangeable potassium). If three or more items meet the standard values, the plot will be deemed compliant. Plots that are found non-compliant will undergo a second inspection the following year, and if they are still non-compliant, the direct payment will be reduced by 10%.

A Pyeongtaek City official stated, "Soil testing is an essential process for environmental conservation in agriculture and the production of safe agricultural products. We ask that farmers use chemical fertilizers in appropriate amounts according to the soil testing prescription standards based on the test results."