Yeoncheon-gun to Implement Rice Cultivation Area Adjustment System in 2025

Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi Province announced on the 3rd that it will promote the ‘Rice Cultivation Area Adjustment System’ to resolve the structural oversupply in the rice industry, stabilize rice prices, and increase farmers' income in accordance with the policies of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Yeoncheon County Office building. Provided by Yeoncheon County.

The reduction target allocated to Yeoncheon-gun by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for this year is 378 hectares.

The Rice Cultivation Area Adjustment System, which will be implemented from 2025, plans to reduce rice cultivation areas through various methods such as new plots participating in strategic crop direct payments, conversion to eco-friendly certified rice, fallowing, and planting green manure crops.

Farmers who reduce their cultivation area will receive benefits such as preferential allocation of public stockpiled rice purchase volumes, activation of high-quality rice distribution, and preferential treatment for applicants from the relevant city or county when applying for RPC rice purchase funds.

Additionally, strategic crop direct payments will provide support of 5 million KRW per hectare for summer forage, 1 million KRW for wheat, 2 million KRW for legumes (soybeans, red beans, etc.), and 1 million KRW for edible corn and sesame (sesame, perilla). Applications for strategic crop direct payments can be made from early February to the end of May at the industrial teams of the Eup/Myeon administrative welfare centers in areas with large farmland.

A Yeoncheon-gun official stated, “Although there is a consensus on the problems related to rice oversupply, it is not easy to induce participation in the Rice Cultivation Area Adjustment System considering the situation in the agricultural field. We urge many farmers to participate so that they do not suffer disadvantages due to non-compliance with mandatory adjustments when public stockpiled rice is purchased in 2025.”