Geochang-gun Provides Disaster Relief Funds to 1,722 Farms Affected by Cold Damage and Hail

Emergency Reserve Fund Urgently Allocated with 3.598 Billion Won Prepaid

Geochang-gun, Gyeongnam Province announced on the 25th that it has provided disaster relief funds amounting to 3.598 billion KRW to 1,722 affected farming households to support recovery from cold damage and hail damage and to stabilize the lives of residents.

In Geochang-gun, a total of 1,309 hectares of crops were damaged across all towns and townships due to abnormal low temperatures and frost in April causing cold damage, and sudden hail in June. The damaged crops include 1,195 hectares of apples, 37.9 hectares of grapes, 34.7 hectares of potatoes, and 13.4 hectares of peaches.

Geochang County Office.

Accordingly, after receiving damage reports and conducting investigations, the county confirmed 1,722 farming households eligible for support through the National Disaster Management Information System (NDMS). Households whose main livelihood is not agriculture (where agriculture accounts for less than 50% of total household income) were excluded from the payment in accordance with the "Regulations on Standards for Burden of Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Costs."

Considering that it takes time for national funds to be allocated after the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters finalized the cold damage recovery plan at the end of August, the county quickly allocated 3.431 billion KRW from its emergency reserve budget for prompt advance payments to affected farmers to stabilize their lives. The county decided to settle the payments later and to swiftly distribute the disaster relief funds before the Chuseok holiday.

County Governor Gu In-mo said, “Following large-scale cold damage in 2020 and 2021, this year also saw significant low-temperature damage, compounded by hail damage in June, causing great concern among farmers. We hope the disaster relief funds will help stabilize the management of affected farms. We will continue to focus administrative efforts on rapid recovery by supporting advance payments with later settlements.”