Pocheon-si Begins Accepting Applications for Basic Public Interest Direct Payments from February 1

Expectation for Stabilizing Farmers' Income

Pocheon City, Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Baek Young-hyun) announced on the 31st that it will accept applications for the 2025 Basic Public Interest Direct Payment from February 1 to April 30.

Pocheon City Hall exterior. Provided by Pocheon City

The Basic Public Interest Direct Payment is a system designed to enhance the public functions of agriculture and rural areas and to stabilize the income of farmers. It is paid to farmers who meet certain requirements and comply with obligations, and is divided into Small-scale Direct Payment and Area-based Direct Payment.

The Small-scale Direct Payment is a fixed amount of 1.3 million KRW regardless of the cultivated area. Eligible recipients must meet several conditions, including △ farmland area of 1,000㎡ or more, residence in rural areas for more than three years (including farming engagement) △ non-agricultural income of 20 million KRW or less (including total household income of 45 million KRW or less), among others.

The Area-based Direct Payment is classified into 1 to 3 sections depending on whether the area is a rural promotion zone and the farmland area, with differential support according to the farmland size. This year, the unit price for the Area-based Direct Payment was increased by 5%, from 1 to 2.05 million KRW per hectare last year to 1.36 to 2.15 million KRW. In addition, the unit price for non-promotion area fields was raised to about 80% of the paddy field unit price to reduce the burden on farmers.

Non-face-to-face applications are possible only for farmers who have no changes in the 2024 Public Interest Direct Payment registration information and the 2025 Agricultural Management Entity registration information and meet the eligibility requirements, and the period is from February 1 to 28. New applicants, agricultural corporations, and farmers who did not apply non-face-to-face must visit the administrative welfare center of the eup, myeon, or dong with the largest cultivated area to apply from March 4 to April 30.

To apply for direct payments, applicants must update the farmland ledger and management entity registration information every year and submit the application form and related documents. Eligible farmland includes △ farmland used for paddy rice agriculture from 1998 to 2020 △ farmland used for dry field agriculture from 2012 to 2014 △ farmland used for agriculture in disadvantaged areas from 2003 to 2005, among others.

Eligible applicants include △ existing recipients who have received direct payments at least once since 2016 △ those selected as successor farmers, full-time farmers, or young farmers △ new eligible applicants who have cultivated 1,000㎡ or more on eligible farmland for at least one year in the past three years.

The city plans to accept change applications until September 30 if there are any changes after receipt. Afterwards, it will verify compliance with 17 obligations such as maintaining farmland shape and function, completing mandatory education, participating in village community activities, and adhering to safe pesticide use, as well as actual cultivation, and plans to pay the direct payments in early December.

A Pocheon City official said, “To receive the Public Interest Direct Payment, you must check the eligibility requirements and apply within the deadline. In particular, if mandatory education and village community activities are not completed, 10% of the total direct payment will be reduced, so we ask that you comply with the 17 obligations before payment.”