Gyeongbuk Province Announces Agricultural Policy Vision for the 8th Elected Term … "Agriculture as a High-Tech Industry! Rural Areas as Healing Spaces"

Integration of 4th Industrial Technologies, Expansion and Advancement of Smart Farms

On the 16th, Gyeongbuk Province announced the agricultural policy slogan for the 8th term of the elected government.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Gwiyeol] On the 16th, Gyeongbuk Province declared its agricultural policy vision for the 8th term of the elected government as "Agriculture as a High-Tech Industry! Rural Areas as Healing Spaces!" at the provincial government multipurpose hall, and held a policy announcement and discussion to concretize this vision.

About 200 participants attended, including Governor Lee Cheol-woo, heads of agricultural organizations, young farmers, and academia.

The new agricultural policy vision of the province aims to overcome the crisis in the agricultural sector by applying the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies, represented by big data and artificial intelligence (AI), which have recently become widespread, through the advancement of high-tech agriculture and the recreation of rural spaces.

The core value of this new vision is to transform the agricultural sector into a high-tech industry through the expansion and advancement of smart agriculture, and to rebirth rural spaces, which have been limited to residential functions, into living and coexistence spaces where culture, welfare, and environment are enhanced together.

This aligns with the agricultural policy direction of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration and Governor Lee Cheol-woo’s election pledges.

The province’s prompt response in the agricultural sector is expected to serve as a turning point for transforming the overall agricultural and rural environment.

To realize the vision, the province presented a total of 20 practical tasks, including the creation of a digital innovation agricultural town, achieving a 25% smartification rate in the facility horticulture sector, establishing a smart agriculture cluster, nurturing 5,000 young farmers, fostering care agriculture, and smartifying agricultural infrastructure, and decided to prioritize these as the top agricultural policies for the 8th term of the elected government.

Among these, the digital innovation agricultural town and the rapid smart farm transition in the facility horticulture sector are particularly noteworthy.

The digital innovation agricultural town is a new concept rural village prepared by the province, completely breaking away from previous agricultural policies that enhanced individual agricultural capabilities through individual support.

The plan is to corporatize the entire village into an agricultural corporation to realize economies of scale, establish a joint farming system centered on high-tech industries such as smart farms and plant factories, and create a village where young farmers and existing farmers coexist.

Additionally, the current 4.6% smartification rate in the facility horticulture sector is planned to be raised to 25% by 2026.

To this end, rather than installing new facilities with high cost burdens, the plan is to improve existing facilities and provide sensors and big data so that existing farmers who are not specialized in smart farming can easily enjoy the benefits of advanced technology.

The projects and proposals presented at the discussion meeting will be submitted to the "Gyeongsangbuk-do Preparation Committee for Leading the Local Era," where they will be intensively reviewed and concretized as key issues for the development of Gyeongbuk’s agricultural policy along with additional items discovered by the committee.

Governor Lee Cheol-woo emphasized, “Just as the New Management Declaration 29 years ago made Samsung a world-class company, today’s vision declaration will be an opportunity for Gyeongbuk agriculture to gain international competitiveness,” and added, “In this era of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies, agriculture must change or it will inevitably lose competitiveness. We will focus on policies for the high-tech industrialization of agriculture and the recreation of rural spaces.”