President Yoon Suk-yeol suggested ‘youth farming’ and ‘smart farming’ as the keywords for the next ‘leap forward,’ saying that “the Korean agricultural industry is in a watersheds of great transition.”
President Yoon made the remarks while touring the Smart Farm Innovation Valley in Sangju, Gyeongssangbuk-do, on Oct. 5.
“Youth are a driving force behind the innovation of our farming industry, and I’m very impressed with youth who have creative ideas and capabilities who learn smart farming technologies to endeavor to realize their dreams,” he said.
President Yoon promised to expand long-term lease farming areas, extend repayment of startup funds, lower their interest rates, expand rental housing units for child care in agricultural villages and support educational programs and consulting services.
The Smart Farm Innovation Valley is an agricultural infrastructure employing big data, AI and IoT, being built by local governments in cooperation with the government.
Currently, there are four such smart farming facilities in Sangju, Gimjae, Milyang and Goheung. President Yoon convened the 9th Emergency Economic Livelihood Meeting at the Smart Farm Innovation Valley in Sangju.
“Our agricultural industry is essentially required to expand smarting farming using big data, AI and digital technology, and educational programs tailored to meet farmers’ conditions and levels for their participation in smart farming and consulting services designed to solve field issues will be expanded,” President Yoon said.
Korea Agriculture Show 2022 an Opportunity to Look into Future Agriculture Industry
Korea Agriculture Show 2022 will be held at the Suwon Convention Center in Gyeonggi-do from Oct. 27 to Oct. 30. The event will be hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) and operated by Korea Agency of Education, Promotion and Information Service in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (EPIS).
Exhibitors will showcase their latest products and technologies at exhibition zones, to be divided under four themes: Value of Agriculture, Attraction of Agriculture, Innovation of Agriculture and Vision of Agriculture.
In particular, spectators will be given the chance to taste “a rice experience zone,” as part of efforts to raise food self-sufficiency to cope with declining rice consumption.
They can also taste foods made with rice, such as bread, cake and beer.
MAFRA Looks to Cultivate Agriculture Industry
The government unveiled a blueprint to innovate the agricultural sector and cultivate it as a future industry, calling for the fostering of 30,000 new youth agriculture professionals by 2027.
The portion of youth agriculture professionals versus the nation’s total agricultural farmers is expected to rise from 1.2 percent in 2020 to up to 10 percent in 2040.
The number of beneficiaries of the agricultural settlement support project, which targets people aged less than 40 and fewer than three years’ farming, will be expanded to 4,000. Support money will be raised to 1.1 million won monthly.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) announced on Oct. 5 the 1st master plan for 2023 to 2027, which calls for cultivating future agriculturalists and youth farming professionals.
Under the plan, MAFRA has set four implementation strategies to cultivate 30,000 youth agriculturists by 2027.
The government will expand the scope of the agricultural settlement support project and future agriculturists in order to induce a combined 25,000 new youth agriculturalists in the next five years.
The new youth agriculturalists include 4,000 in 2023, 5,000 in 2024, 5,000 in 2024, 5,000 in 2025, 6,000 in 2026 and 6,000 in 2027.
The number of beneficiaries of the agricultural settlement support project will rise from 2,000 in 2022 to 4,000 in 2023.
Their monthly support money will increase from a maximum of 1 million won to 1.1 million won in 2023.
The number of beneficiaries of the future agriculturist project targeting people aged less than 50 and less than 10 years of farming will rise from 3,000 in 2022 to 5,000 in 2023.
The scope of future agriculturist with five years of designation who are entitled to low-interest loans will rise from 300 in 2022 to 500 in 2023.
The government plans to transit 30 percent of the nation’s total agricultural production to smart farming, and grow the smart farming market whose value is estimated at 300 billion won to 1 trillion won.
Korea has a strategy to narrow its gap the leading nations in global smart farming.
The plan calls for cultivating five smart farming unicorn companies and ramping up the competitiveness of global exports.
The global smart farming market, whose value is estimated at $16.1 billion in 2022, is predicted to grow at an average annual growth rate of more than 10 percent.
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