Wise Return to Farming Life, Pohang City Supports You from Start to Finish

From Attracting Interest to Agricultural Stabilization Stage, Expanding Broad Support

Supporting Urban Residents' Rural Induction and Stable Rural Settlement for Returnees

Pohang City is promoting various support projects and policies to attract returnees to farming and rural areas and to support their stable settlement in agricultural activities.

A community harmony event for new return-to-farm and return-to-village residents held in Gibuk-myeon in 2021.

As a mixed urban-rural city, the cultural differences between rural and urban residents are relatively small, and access to medical, educational, and cultural infrastructure is convenient, resulting in a high success rate for returnees to farming and rural living.

Accordingly, the city is implementing broad support measures throughout all stages?from generating interest, providing information, education, settlement, establishment of farming infrastructure, to stabilization of farming activities?to systematically promote policies for returnees to farming and rural areas.

First, to attract potential returnees, the city operates nationwide 'Return-to-Farming and Rural Living Expos,' a 'Return-to-Farming and Rural Living Comprehensive Center,' and social network experts known as 'Return-to-Farming and Rural Living Neighborhood Writers' targeting those wishing to return to farming and rural living from other cities or urban areas within Pohang.

In particular, the 'Return-to-Farming and Rural Living Neighborhood Writers' consistently promote the current status of Pohang City, local attractions, notable figures, specialty products, and policies through about 50 articles and photos every month.

The city provides essential information for the first steps of returnees through education programs such as retirement-targeted return-to-farming and rural living training, agricultural machinery safety education, and return-to-farming and rural living academies. Additionally, to learn practical know-how from field experts, a mentor-mentee system by crop type is operated, offering returnees opportunities to quickly acquire agricultural skills.

Alongside this, the city runs a 'Living in the Countryside' program that offers time and space for experiencing return-to-farming and rural living firsthand, thereby reducing trial and error in the process.

Moreover, Pohang City actively strives to support the settlement and establishment of farming infrastructure for returnees.

For initial settlement, the city provides loan programs through the 'Return-to-Farming Agricultural Startup and Housing Purchase Support Project' and partially subsidizes costs for purchasing small and medium-sized agricultural machinery and consumable agricultural materials. These subsidies help cover expenses incurred during the early stages of settlement, promoting a stable rural foundation.

Furthermore, when returnees who have established their settlement and farming base begin active exchanges with local residents, the city holds 'Returnee-Farmer Organization and Village Resident Harmony Events' to enhance intimacy with local residents and facilitate integration into rural communities.

During this period, to reduce the burden of agricultural production costs while repaying loan principal, the city plans subsidy projects targeting returnees with excellent loan performance.

Yu Wook-jae, director of the Pohang Agricultural Technology Center, stated, “We will contribute to revitalizing the local economy by promoting various rural vitality projects, including encouraging urban residents to move to rural areas, supporting stable settlement of returnees, and activating communities together with local residents.”

The Pohang Agricultural Technology Center recognizes the urban agriculture population as agricultural lifestyle populations and potential returnees, providing opportunities for urban residents to experience and learn about agriculture. This broadens their understanding of agricultural activities and agricultural products, fosters urban-rural producer-consumer communities, and responds to the decline of the agricultural production population.

Additionally, the 'Return-to-Farming and Rural Living Comprehensive Center' provides detailed information on return-to-farming and rural living policies throughout the year.