Young Farmers 904 in 2017 → 1,816 in 2020... Results of Customized Policy Implementation
Continuous Investment in Smart Farms... Utilizing Digital Young Farmer Talent Pool
[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] The efforts of Gyeongbuk Province, which is focusing its capabilities on fostering young farmers, have begun to shine.
According to Statistics Korea, the number of young farm household heads under 40 in Gyeongbuk increased from 904 in 2017 to 1,816 in 2020, more than doubling. This is a much higher increase compared to the national average growth rate of 34% during the same period.
Gyeongbuk Province believes that the catalytic effect of the youth farmer development policy, now in its fourth year, has begun to fully manifest.
This year, a total of approximately 15.8 billion KRW, including 6.4 billion KRW in national funds across 14 projects, will be invested to foster young farmers.
By expanding communication channels with prospective young farmers through expert consulting, monitoring, and mentoring by leading farmers, the plan is to eliminate hesitation factors regarding starting farming.
Utilizing management practice rental farms and agricultural industry startup support centers, high-quality educational content covering all areas from cultivation techniques to manufacturing, processing, distribution, sales, and management know-how will also be provided.
Through establishing a foundation for young farmers’ startups, supporting the settlement of farm succession, and providing rural development funds for young farmers, financial support for facilities and equipment, which are burdensome in the early stages of farming, as well as funds necessary for management, will not be overlooked.
Additionally, living expenses, household funds, and farming activity costs will be supported through young farmer settlement support and young farmer development support projects.
Starting this year, to alleviate the burden of securing farmland, farmland rental fees will be supported up to 2 million KRW when renting farmland through the Korea Rural Community Corporation.
Gyeongbuk Province has set the great transformation to digital agriculture as its agricultural policy goal and holds the conviction that “the starting point and key to success is people, specifically young farmers.”
Accordingly, it plans to nurture young farmers, who are digital natives proficient in various information and communication technologies (ICT), as the core agents of digital agriculture.
To this end, from this year, the rural development fund will be dramatically supported to foster young farmers leading digital agriculture and smart farm households.
For facility funds, support for smart farm households has been expanded from the original 200 million KRW to a maximum of 500 million KRW, and the repayment period for young farmers has been significantly extended to a 5-year grace period followed by 15 years of equal installments.
Furthermore, smart farms, innovation valleys, youth startup incubation centers, and the Gyeongbuk Farmers’ Academy will be utilized as a digital young farmer talent pool combining field and theory.
Kim Jongsu, Director of the Agriculture, Livestock, and Distribution Bureau of Gyeongbuk Province, said, “As the saying goes, youth is happy just by having a future. We will concentrate all our capabilities so that many young people nationwide can dream of the future in Gyeongbuk’s agriculture and rural areas,” adding, “We promise to be a strong support so that young farmers can grow as the main agents of future digital agriculture.”
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