Nonghyup to bolster farmers' income

Kim Byung-won, Nonghyup chairman

By Lee Hyo-sik

Nonghyup, or the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, will mobilize more resources this year to enable farmers to bolster their income, its chairman said Tuesday.

Nonghyup Chairman Kim Byung-won told reporters that his company will help farming households improve productivity, reduce costs, produce more value-added crops and find new income sources besides farming.

“We will do everything we can to boost the average annual income of local farmers to 50 million won ($43,000) by 2020,” Kim said at a press briefing, marking his first anniversary as the outfit’s leader.

Last March, he was elected as the chairman to manage the organization with 2.35 million members for four years. Nonghyup has assets valued at about 400 trillion won, operates 31 subsidiaries and employs 8,800 people.

“We will faithfully implement what we have outlined to promote the importance of farming communities in our society and bolster the wellbeing of farmers and their family members,” Kim said.

Among others, Nonghyup plans to offer more productive cultivation techniques and new breeds of crops, as well as make distribution channels simpler and more transparent so that farmers can earn more from selling their products to consumers.

It will also extend more loans to farmers at lower interest rates, and help farmers install solar panels and turn their villages into tourist attractions so that they can secure new sources of income.

“To ease the excessive rice inventory and stabilize the price, Nonghyup will purchase more rice,” the chairman said. “We will produce and market a wide range of processed food items using rice and other grains. We will also help set up a more comprehensive and effective quarantine system for livestock farms to help prevent the outbreak and spread of avian influenza, foot and mouth disease, and other animal diseases.”