President Kim In-sik of Korea Rural Community Corp. (KRC) (Photos: KRC)

Korea Rural Community Corp. (KRC) held a ceremony to mark the 112th anniversary at KRC headquarters in Naju, Jeollanam-do, held on Dec. 8.

At the event, it announced “KRC Agro-Fishery Community New Deal” to implement innovative strategies to pave the way for the next 100 years of the agro-fishery industry and agricultural and fisheries communities.

In his speech to the anniversary event, KRC CEO Kim In-sik said, “KRC has established strategies to purse ‘KRC Agro-fishery Community New Deal’ to implement projects farmers and fishermen sense in accordance with the Korean New Deal and improve the agro-fishery community.”

After KRC President Kim took office in March 2019, he shifted the management paradigm to an on-site management regime to implement projects for farmers and fishermen to improve the value of the agricultural and fisheries communities based on the management tenet “Together with Farmers and Fishermen for Agro-Fishery Community.”

In particular, as the agro-fishery industry and agro-fishery community continued dramatic environmental changes due to the longest-ever monsoon period, as well as the protracted COVID-19 pandemic, KRC has focused on spearheading the development of a virtuous cycle by implementing its original duties and convergence functions.

The KRC Agro-fishery Community New Deal involves strategies to produce outcomes by implementing of the corporation’s four major projects and two convergence projects.

It calls for building a “safe agricultural environment” and facilitating “agro-fishery smart,” and a shift to a green economy, and win-win cooperation platforms.

As for building a smart agro-fishery production infrastructure, KRC plans to raise the incomes of farmers and fishermen, and strengthen national food security by expanding smart agriculture, establishing climate safety infrastructure and expanding land for general farming.

Second, as for realizing the water welfare of safe and healthy agro-fishery communities, the corporation plans to supply clean water by digitizing of agro-fishery social overhead capital, ramping up responses against disasters and establishing a water management regime involving public participation like the operation of governance to meet water demand of agro-fishery communities.

Third, in order to build an income safety net according to farmers’ lifecycles, KRC will shift an agricultural bank project paradigm into a digitalized, non-face-to-face one and expand support to young farmers and people in vulnerable brackets while focusing on expanding stable incomes of agricultural households related to direct payments for public interests by strengthening agricultural land policy support functions.

Fourth, in order to invigorate innovative space of agro-fishery villages and communities, the corporation will create low-density and eco-friendly agro-fishery space to brace for the post-COVID-19 pandemic by creating agro-fishery 365-day life sphere.

It will do that by rejuvenating life social overhead capital, an online agro-fishery tourism platform, renovating vacant houses and restoring agro-fisher landscape and reinvigorating the regional economy centering around communities.

Fifth, in order to expand agro-fishery green energy in cooperation with regional residents, KRC plans to expand new/renewal power generation facilities using salt pond reclamation area and idle water surface and share related revenues with neighborhood residents.

Last, KRC aims to realize global shared growth by expanding “K-agricultural” industry’s overseas market entry.

To this end, the corporation will spearhead the globalization of the Korean New Deal projects, focusing on digitalization and green paradigm by proactively supporting the private sector’s entry into the overseas agricultural development industry by making the most of agricultural technology and trustworthiness KRC has accumulated in the course of implementing mega-projects such as Saemanguem and large-sized reclamation projects.

A view of Korea Rural Community Corp. headquarters in Naju, Jeollanam-do.