S. Korea Increases Number of Young Farmers to 23,000 by 2025

Sejong, 13 November 2024 — The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) has been running a young and beginning farmers grant programme that provides a maximum of KRW1.1 million a month per farmer for up to three years or less. The programme aims to relieve the difficulties that young farmers suffer as a result of income decreases at a start-up stage of farming. The MAFRA will scale up the programme, started in 2018, by increasing the number of the grant recipients. Starting from this year, 5,000 people will be added to the 2023 cumulative number of the grant recipients—i.e. 12,600 people—every year, and in 2025, the cumulative number is expected to reach approximately 23,000, up by 10,000 from 2023.

An analysis of the beneficiaries of the young and beginning farmers grant programme indicates distinctive characteristics as follows:

First, the percentage of prospective farmers with no experience in farming practices among the grant recipients has steadily increased. In 2018 when the grant programme was started, the percentage of prospective farmers was 42.5%. However, in 2024, the figure has risen to 78.3% in 2024, up by 35.8 percentage points from 2018. This means prospective farmers make up the majority of the recipients of the grants.

Second, among the grant recipients, there has been an increase in the percentage of people who are not from agricultural high schools or agricultural universities. The percentage has increased to 79.9% in 2024, up by 14.3 percentage points from 65.6% in 2018. An increase in the percentage of prospective farmers and those from non-agricultural schools indicates that young people living in urban areas are showing a higher interest in farming as a job.

Third, the percentage of young female farmers in the grant recipients is also on the rise. Their percentage was 17.5% in 2018, but has increased by 12.1 percentage points to 29.6% in 2024. This indicates that more and more women are showing a growing interest in becoming farmers.

In addition to the grant programme, the MAFRA will step up its tailored support for young and beginning farmers. In 2025, the MAFRA will build another four long-term rental-based smart farms for young farmers to alleviate the difficulties they suffer at a start-up stage of farming. The MAFRA will also add another 10 rental housing complexes, which will increase the number of the complexes from the current 17 to 27.