Relieving Stress and Depression Through Agriculture... Gokseong County Trains Healing Agriculture Specialists

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Discovering Professional Talent in Healing Agriculture

View of Gokseong County Office, Jeonnam. Provided by Gokseong-gun, Jeonnam.

Gokseong County in Jeonnam will provide an exceptional level of financial support for tuition fees for the Level 2 Healing Agriculture Specialist training course, in order to expand the reach of “healing agriculture,” which soothes the bodies and minds of modern people through agriculture.

According to Gokseong County on February 24, healing agriculture refers to all agricultural activities that utilize various resources of agriculture and rural areas to restore and enhance people’s mental and physical health. A Healing Agriculture Specialist is a key nationally certified expert who directly develops such customized programs and is responsible for the overall management of related education and facility operations.

To obtain the Healing Agriculture Specialist qualification, candidates must complete all required training hours at a designated training institution (4 nationwide for Level 1 and 20 nationwide for Level 2), and then pass both the first and second stages of the national examination administered by the Rural Development Administration.

County residents who wish to receive tuition support can apply individually to designated Healing Agriculture Specialist training institutions, such as the Gokseong County Agricultural Technology Center, Jeonnam Provincial College, and Jeonju Kijeon College. Final trainees will be strictly selected by the training institutions through document screening and interviews.

Gokseong County plans to ultimately select five people from among those who are accepted as trainees at the training institutions and successfully complete the course, and provide them with 70% of the tuition fee, which amounts to 1.4 million won.

An official from Gokseong County said, “We will proactively identify customized Healing Agriculture Specialists and train them as professionals so that we can take a leading role in the development and stable establishment of healing agriculture in the region.”

Meanwhile, Gokseong County also supported tuition fees for the Level 2 training course last year and successfully produced its second Healing Agriculture Specialist in the region. Going forward, the county plans to actively utilize these experts to operate a wide range of in-depth healing programs for local dementia patients and people at risk of depression and stress.