Jang Taepyeong, Chair of the Agriculture and Fisheries Committee, "Support for Farmers Actually Farming Must Be Strengthened"

Press Conference on the 20th

Jang Tae-pyeong, Chairman of the Special Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries, and Rural Affairs, stated on the 19th, "Support benefits should be strengthened for those who are professionally engaged in agriculture."

At a press briefing on the same day, Chairman Jang said, "There is a need to redefine the definition of farmers to reflect recent changes, and the support system for farmers should be revised accordingly."

Jang Tae-pyeong, Chairman of the Special Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries, and Rural Affairs, is speaking at a press conference on the 19th.

The Agriculture and Fisheries Committee held the "23rd Agriculture and Fisheries Subcommittee" the day before, discussing ways to redefine the definitions of agriculture and farmers. Regarding the qualifications of farmers and distinguishing them from agricultural management entities, it was proposed to raise the criteria based on field surveys of farmers, distribution of farm sizes, and overseas cases: increasing the cultivation area from 0.1 hectares to 0.3 hectares and raising the annual sales amount to 3.6 million KRW.

Chairman Jang explained, "When visiting the field, farmers say that those who engage in agriculture as their main livelihood are farmers, but it is difficult to consider those who run supermarkets or have side businesses as farmers, so it is problematic to provide support to both." He added, "We are discussing ways to provide more proper support to those who properly manage their farms as the core of agricultural and farmer support."

Regarding the imbalance in rice supply and demand, he emphasized the need to actively promote consumption expansion. Chairman Jang said, "We should not focus solely on reducing cultivation areas to decrease rice supply but should grow the rice-processed food market, which is seeing increased consumption." He stressed, "Rice-processed food exports are about 200 million USD, and there is a plan to increase this to 300 million USD. If we export products like tteokbokki and rice ramen, there will be no need to deliberately restrict production."

He continued, "The committee is preparing for a fundamental transformation to develop the food industry as a core industry like the semiconductor industry," and added, "We will openly discuss topics related to agriculture and farmers with various stakeholders in the future and strive to promote policies through social consensus."