Diversification of Agricultural Machinery Rental Business, Expansion of Supported Types for Tax-Exempt Agricultural Fuel Purchases
Gyeongnam Changnyeong-gun Agricultural Technology Center held a mechanized garlic planting field demonstration at the Agricultural Machinery Rental Business Office. [Image source=Changnyeong-gun Office]
[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Wook] Changnyeong-gun, Gyeongnam Province, is making strenuous efforts to revitalize agriculture and rural areas facing difficulties such as rural aging and rising labor costs by expanding agricultural mechanization and diversifying agricultural machinery rental services.
The county is diversifying the agricultural machinery usage system to establish a realistic support system to overcome the difficult rural environment caused by a decrease in agricultural labor and rising wages.
Judging that short-term rental projects have limitations in promoting mechanization, they are promoting a combination of long-term rental projects utilizing the government policy project, the main production area integrated mechanization project, and a county-led project with an investment of 1.8 billion KRW.
Changnyeong-gun, a nationwide representative garlic production area, has secured 2.2 billion KRW in national and local government funds through the government public project for fostering excellent mechanization models to establish a stable production system and secure competitiveness, aiming to improve productivity and reduce management costs.
In addition, they hold on-site demonstration meetings of mechanization technologies for major cultivation processes such as garlic sowing, harvesting, and sorting, providing opportunities to evaluate various agricultural machines and exploring ways to apply mechanization in the field through surveys.
Furthermore, by forming a cooperative system consisting of the government, Changnyeong-gun, and the private sector, they are collecting diverse demands from farmers and establishing a mechanization system for the entire garlic cultivation process, expecting to transform into a garlic industry city representing South Korea.
To reduce the burden on farms due to rising fuel costs, a fixed amount support of 50% of the purchase volume (185 KRW per liter) within the range of 42 liters to 14,600 liters is provided for seven types of duty-free fuel purchased from March 1 to November 25 this year.
Initially, support was planned only for three types: gasoline, diesel, and kerosene, but they plan to provide broader support by adding heavy oil, LPG, and by-product fuels No. 1 and No. 2.
They are providing a service that delivers agricultural machinery free of charge to the site for machinery that is difficult for farms to transport directly, easing the workload of farmers during the busy farming season.
This service operates during the busy farming months of May to June and September to October, including public holidays, for four months to accommodate farmers' convenience.
Every year, they provide various services from the perspective of residents' convenience, such as agricultural machinery safety education and mobile repairs for 50 remote villages where machinery repair is difficult due to distance or poor transportation.
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