Jeongeup City in Jeonbuk Province announced on the 23rd that it has finalized 14,414 recipients for this year's Basic Public Interest Direct Payment and plans to disburse 36.6 billion KRW in national funds within this month.
After account verification procedures at the township, town, and neighborhood offices where the farmland is located, farmers are expected to start receiving the direct payments as early as the 27th.
First implemented in 2020, the Public Interest Direct Payment system is designed to provide direct payments to farmers who meet certain qualifications and comply with requirements, aiming to enhance the public functions of agriculture and rural areas and stabilize farmers' incomes.
The city accepted applications for the Basic Direct Payment from February to April over three months, and after verifying eligible farmland, farmers, and small-scale direct payment requirements, as well as conducting compliance inspections, finalized the list of recipients.
Among them, about 4,200 farmers (5 billion KRW), accounting for 30% of the total, qualify for the small-scale direct payment, which provides 1.2 million KRW per farm regardless of area, while approximately 12,000 farmers (31.6 billion KRW), or 70%, are eligible for area-based direct payments according to farmland size.
Starting this year, the legal clause requiring farmland to have received rice, field crop, or disadvantaged condition direct payments at least once between 2017 and 2019 was removed from the farmland eligibility criteria for the Basic Public Interest Direct Payment. Through the 'Integrated Verification System,' the city newly identified 422 hectares of farmland compared to last year.
The city plans to continue upgrading the system from the application stage to prevent ineligible farmland from being applied for, thereby proactively blocking fraudulent applications.
Mayor Lee Hak-su said, "I hope this direct payment will help stabilize farm incomes for farmers who have endured difficulties due to labor shortages and abnormal weather conditions," adding, "We will do our best to ensure the Public Interest Direct Payment project proceeds smoothly."
Jeongeup = Kim Jae-gil, Honam Reporting Headquarters, Asia Economy baekok@asiae.co.kr
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
