Damyang-gun Pays 14.1 Billion KRW in 'Basic Public Interest Direct Payments' to 8,525 Farmers

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Chunsu] Damyang-gun, Jeonnam announced on the 5th that it has paid 14.12 billion won in Basic Public Interest Direct Payments to 8,525 farmers who applied and registered from March to May.

The Basic Public Interest Direct Payment system is now in its third year of implementation this year. It is a system that promotes the public functions of agriculture and rural areas such as environmental conservation, rural maintenance, and food safety through agricultural activities, and stabilizes farmers' income by providing payments divided into Small-scale Farmer Direct Payments and Area-based Direct Payments according to certain eligibility criteria.

The Small-scale Farmer Direct Payment is a fixed amount of 1.2 million won paid uniformly to farmers who meet the payment requirements such as cultivating an area of 5,000㎡ or less, having a farm income of 20 million won or less, residing in rural areas for more than three years, and engaging in agriculture. The Area-based Direct Payment is paid according to the unit price for each section based on the cultivated area.

A county official said, “We hope that the Public Interest Direct Payment will help increase farmers' income during difficult times such as rising agricultural material prices and falling rice prices,” and added, “If direct payments are fraudulently received without actually farming, there will be disadvantages such as recovery of direct payments, imposition of penalty surcharges, and restrictions on direct payment registration, so special caution is requested.”