Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Establishes 'Next-Generation Agricultural Informatization Promotion Team' to Exclusively Prevent Fraudulent Agricultural Subsidy Claims

Organizational Restructuring to Be Implemented on the 26th

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs will establish a new 'Next-Generation Agricultural Informatization Promotion Team' dedicated to preventing fraudulent claims of agricultural subsidies and providing customized services for farmers. Additionally, a Rural Regeneration Support Team will be created to facilitate smoother implementation of rural regeneration projects.

On the 20th, the Ministry announced that the 'Partial Amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the Organization of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and Its Affiliated Agencies,' which includes this organizational restructuring plan, will be promulgated and enforced on the 26th.

With this reorganization, the Ministry will expand from the existing structure of 3 offices, 14 bureaus/departments, and 53 divisions/teams to a system comprising 55 divisions/teams by adding 2 more divisions/teams.

First, the Next-Generation Agricultural Informatization Promotion Team will be launched to promote the construction project of the Next-Generation Agricultural and Rural Integrated Information System, aimed at providing customized services for farmers and preventing fraudulent claims of agricultural subsidies. This temporary division-level organization will operate for three years from January 1, next year, to December 2025, aligned with the construction project period, and will be organized under the Policy Planning Office. The Ministry expects that by building a big data analysis platform, user convenience will improve through AI-based customized information services for farmers and simplified non-face-to-face and online applications and processing for subsidy projects, as well as an effective prevention of subsidy fraud.

As the enforcement date of the 'Act on the Restructuring and Regeneration Support of Rural Spaces,' enacted to make rural areas pleasant and retain their rural characteristics, approaches on March 29 next year, the Ministry will also strengthen the division/team organization of the Rural Policy Bureau to stabilize the rural spatial planning system.

The existing 'Rural Planning Division,' which focused on projects, will be reorganized into the 'Rural Spatial Planning Division.' This division will be responsible for planning the rural spatial planning system, concluding rural agreements, supporting local governments in establishing and implementing spatial plans, and overseeing the entire system.

Furthermore, a new Rural Regeneration Support Team will be established to handle diverse support projects such as rural regeneration projects, regional development projects, capacity building, and housing improvement. In addition, tasks related to the direct payment system for rural landscape conservation will be transferred to the Rural Economy Division, and work between divisions/teams will be adjusted with personnel reallocated according to changes in workload.

Alongside this, the K-Rice Belt Promotion Team, aimed at resolving the global food crisis and closing development gaps between countries, and the Strategic Crop Development Team, focused on strengthening national food security and stabilizing supply and demand, will be newly established as autonomous organizations.

Autonomous organizations are temporary division-level organizations that can be independently established by ministries and operate primarily until June next year, with possible extensions (up to one year) according to regulations. They will be organized under the International Cooperation Office and the Food Policy Office, respectively.

Park Soon-yeon, Policy Planning Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said, "This organizational restructuring will support the seamless implementation of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's national agenda, including strengthening support for agriculture and rural areas, creating growth environments, industrializing agriculture as a future growth industry, securing food sovereignty, and enhancing farm management stability." She added, "We believe this will allow us to focus more on driving change and innovation in agriculture and rural areas."