The South Korean government has made visible progress in improving unreasonable practices in agriculture and rural areas, addressing seven key issues. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on August 10 that it has been actively working to identify and rectify these practices since launching a 'Normalization Task Force' in April, which selected 39 normalization tasks in the agricultural and rural sectors. By last month, the ministry reported tangible results in seven of these tasks, focusing on correcting unreasonable practices and improving the administrative system from the perspective of policy users.
To prevent circumvention of laws and regulations, the government has reformed systems to address illegal land use issues related to 'gugo' (artificial waterways for drainage). In June, it established unified maintenance standards and conducted extensive joint safety inspections, uncovering 3,477 illegal cases and initiating restoration measures.
The government has also laid the groundwork for the stable import of grains produced overseas. In July, it enacted regulations to prevent overseas companies from improperly applying for local production grains.
Additionally, the government has revised outdated laws and systems. Previously, only market and county heads could apply for the foreign seasonal worker program; now, city district mayors can also apply, alleviating labor shortages in agricultural areas within metropolitan cities.
The process for designating 'Korean Food Masters' has been streamlined, reducing the time required from over seven months to about two months.
Unreasonable practices that did not meet public expectations have also been corrected. The analysis of livestock manure liquid fertilizer prescriptions, which had been delayed during the farming season, has been expanded to include private entities, and soil testing standards have been simplified. Furthermore, the welfare rice supply system has been restructured to allow the provision of both white rice and eco-friendly certified rice to senior centers and free meal services.
Measures have been implemented to eliminate the practice of inflating prices for agricultural machinery to exploit government policy funds. Legal grounds have been established to restrict violators from selling subsidized agricultural machinery for two years. The ministry plans to specify standards and detailed procedures through regulatory amendments by early next year.
Park Soon-yeon, head of the Planning and Coordination Office at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, stated, "The national normalization project aims to correct unreasonable practices and gaps in the system to create changes that citizens can genuinely feel. We will thoroughly monitor the implementation of agricultural and rural normalization tasks to ensure they yield practical results swiftly, while also striving to identify additional normalization tasks."
To prevent circumvention of laws and regulations, the government has reformed systems to address illegal land use issues related to 'gugo' (artificial waterways for drainage). In June, it established unified maintenance standards and conducted extensive joint safety inspections, uncovering 3,477 illegal cases and initiating restoration measures.
The government has also laid the groundwork for the stable import of grains produced overseas. In July, it enacted regulations to prevent overseas companies from improperly applying for local production grains.
Additionally, the government has revised outdated laws and systems. Previously, only market and county heads could apply for the foreign seasonal worker program; now, city district mayors can also apply, alleviating labor shortages in agricultural areas within metropolitan cities.
The process for designating 'Korean Food Masters' has been streamlined, reducing the time required from over seven months to about two months.
Unreasonable practices that did not meet public expectations have also been corrected. The analysis of livestock manure liquid fertilizer prescriptions, which had been delayed during the farming season, has been expanded to include private entities, and soil testing standards have been simplified. Furthermore, the welfare rice supply system has been restructured to allow the provision of both white rice and eco-friendly certified rice to senior centers and free meal services.
Measures have been implemented to eliminate the practice of inflating prices for agricultural machinery to exploit government policy funds. Legal grounds have been established to restrict violators from selling subsidized agricultural machinery for two years. The ministry plans to specify standards and detailed procedures through regulatory amendments by early next year.
Park Soon-yeon, head of the Planning and Coordination Office at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, stated, "The national normalization project aims to correct unreasonable practices and gaps in the system to create changes that citizens can genuinely feel. We will thoroughly monitor the implementation of agricultural and rural normalization tasks to ensure they yield practical results swiftly, while also striving to identify additional normalization tasks."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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