Gumi-si, 150 Billion KRW Focused Investment in 'Rural Great Transformation'

Focusing on Securing Agricultural Food Industry, Attracting Various Public Projects

Committed to Agricultural Revitalization through Residential Environment Improvement and Future Agriculture Response

Gumi City in Gyeongbuk Province is embarking on a major rural transformation with a large-scale budget investment of 150 billion KRW.

Rural Agreement (Gumi City Rural Development Plan).

This year, Gumi City has increased its agricultural budget by 9.88% compared to the previous year and plans to invest a total of 150 billion KRW in six projects, starting with the Rural Agreement project selected by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, aimed at improving living conditions in rural areas and increasing farmers' income.

Along with this, with the establishment of the Korea Food Research Institute Gyeongbuk Headquarters in Gumi, the city plans to enhance its capacity to respond to sustainable agriculture by creating a food industry cluster where food-related research institutions and companies are concentrated.

▲ Improving living conditions through Rural Agreement, return-to-farming and return-to-village support, and creation of a forest recreation town (77.4 billion KRW)

The Rural Agreement project was selected in this year’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs competition and plans to implement a total project cost of 45 billion KRW by 2028, promoting rural central area revitalization projects in Seonsan and Sandong-eup, and basic living base creation projects in Mueul and Jangcheon-myeon.

The city is operating a return-to-farming and return-to-village support center as part of the selected project this year, remodeling vacant rural houses to promote rural living experiences and linking various programs such as experiential learning.

The forest recreation town project will invest a total of 32.2 billion KRW by 2027 in Nosang-ri, Seonsan-eup, to create local gardens and healing forests to realize happiness in citizens’ daily lives and improve quality of life.

▲ Fostering digital young farmers and field (food crop joint) management entities (0.5 billion KRW)

The digital young farmer fostering project supports prospective young farmers’ entrepreneurship encouragement and strengthens early settlement support to help young farmers with unstable initial income settle stably.

The food crop joint (field) management entity fostering project supports concentrated cultivation of non-rice crops to induce appropriate rice production and improve production and distribution conditions across food crops by promoting joint management of fields larger than 50 hectares.

▲ Creating a food industry cluster and establishing a wheat industry to respond to future agriculture (2.1 billion KRW)

The establishment of the Korea Food Research Institute Gyeongbuk Headquarters, which had been delayed due to site issues, was resolved through Gumi City’s active efforts in December last year, resulting in a business agreement including the establishment of the Gyeongbuk Headquarters and support for building a research base. Accordingly, the city plans to start a research project to create a food industry cluster, including an export-oriented complex where food-related research institutions and companies are concentrated.

To promote the upgrading of wheat quality, the city plans to build milling facilities and operate a Korean wheat promotion center. In Mueul-myeon, Ungok-ri, by 2024, 2.1 billion KRW will be invested to create a digital innovation agricultural town with joint meal service facilities and rice milling facilities.

Additionally, from autumn, the city plans to cultivate scenic crops on fallow land to beautifully form, maintain, and improve rural landscapes, creating scenic crop complexes that can contribute to additional farm income and regional economic revitalization linked to tourism.

▲ ICT convergence expansion project and cutting-edge solid fuel livestock industry development (5 billion KRW)

To reduce production costs and optimize feeding management for livestock farms and strengthen competitiveness, 1.5 billion KRW will be invested to distribute intelligent livestock management systems including indoor and outdoor environment management systems and CCTV to livestock farms.

The solid fuel project aims to transform livestock manure from waste to an industrial resource, establishing a carbon-neutral fuel production base in the livestock sector and creating a foundation for future sustainable development through eco-friendly energy conversion of livestock manure. This project is scheduled for a public contest in July.

▲ Digital transformation of agricultural product distribution including Agricultural Product Distribution Center (APC) construction (7 billion KRW)

Once the Agricultural Product Distribution Center (APC) is built, it will supply safe local agricultural products from Gumi to school meals and public catering, establish a production-consumption-distribution system for local food, increase income for small-scale farmers, and secure diversity in local food.

Also, 7 billion KRW will be invested over four years until 2025 in the Rural New Vitality Plus project, starting with the opening of the first local food direct store in May and creating complex facilities such as Dure Farm.

▲ Multipurpose rural water development and Nakdong River pumping station facility improvement to supply agricultural water (57.4 billion KRW)

To ensure smooth supply of agricultural water, a multipurpose rural water development project in the Sanjang district will proceed with 37.4 billion KRW in national funds until 2030, and 20 billion KRW will be invested to improve facilities at nine agricultural water pumping stations drawing water from the Nakdong River.

The city’s large-scale budget investment plan is the result of continuous efforts to secure national and provincial funding. In particular, to be selected for various public projects, the city actively gathered opinions from various experts and local residents and worked closely with local members of the National Assembly, provincial and city councilors.

Mayor Kim Jang-ho said, “Currently, Gumi’s agriculture is at a turning point requiring a major transformation. We plan to continuously invest budgets to make it the center of Korea’s future food industry and will do our best to attract large-scale national projects.”