▲ With the full-fledged kimchi-making season underway, farmers and foreign workers are harvesting cabbages in the fields of Gyeongpo-dong, Gangneung City, Gangwon Province.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced that next year’s budget has been finalized at 20.1362 trillion won, an increase of 101.2 billion won compared to the government’s proposal of 20.0350 trillion won, as approved by the National Assembly.
This marks the first time the budget has surpassed 20 trillion won, reflecting an increase of 7.4% (1.3946 trillion won) compared to this year.
Additional funds have been allocated to major projects such as the rural basic income pilot project, support for eco-friendly agricultural products for pregnant women, and public seasonal labor.
For the rural basic income pilot project, an additional budget of 63.7 billion won has been included to support three additional counties apart from the seven already selected.
The budget for the pilot project, which provides local currency worth 150,000 won per month to residents of the designated areas over two years, totals 234.1 billion won for next year.
Additionally, a budget of 15.8 billion won has been allocated to restart the support for eco-friendly agricultural products for pregnant women, which was halted in 2023, to promote healthy eating for pregnant women and increase consumption of eco-friendly agricultural products.
Through this program, support will be provided for 160,000 pregnant women to purchase eco-friendly agricultural products worth up to 40,000 won per month.
Funding for projects aimed at ensuring agricultural income stability and management has also been supplemented.
To ease the financial burden on farm operations, 15.6 billion won has been allocated to subsidize the purchase price of mineral fertilizers (650,000 tons).
In response to labor shortages during peak farming seasons, an additional budget of 3 billion won has been allocated for the expansion of public seasonal labor (20 locations) and the construction of additional agricultural worker dormitories (10 locations). An additional 7.7 billion won has been allocated for expanding the production base of forage crops in line with the expansion of strategic crop direct payment program targets.
Furthermore, a total of 34 additional projects have been reflected in the budget, including 5.1 billion won to support the development of collaborative farming entities focused on main crop-producing areas, 500 million won for the installation of low-temperature distribution facilities to ensure stable agricultural supply and distribution, and 17.4 billion won for the expansion of agricultural social overhead capital (SOC) such as the development of rural water resources.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food has stated that it plans to promptly implement necessary procedures to ensure that the finalized budget can be executed in a timely manner.
(Photo = Yonhap News)