The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on the 12th that it will expand support for disaster prevention facilities in orchards to reduce production disruptions due to abnormal weather.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs will support disaster prevention facilities in orchards covering an area of 2,000 hectares (1 hectare equals 10,000 square meters) this year. This is equivalent to seven times the area of Yeuido (290 hectares).
The supported area this year is more than double that of last year (886 hectares). The budget has also increased to 6 billion won, which is 2.6 times more than last year.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plans to prioritize support for farms that have introduced different varieties instead of existing Shin-go pears and Fuji apples to diversify crop varieties. Last year, Shin-go variety pears accounted for 84.6% of pear cultivation area, while Fuji variety apples constituted 66.4% of apple cultivation area.
The government plans to reduce production declines caused by abnormal weather and prevent price surges through this support. This is because changes in temperature leading to altered flowering periods or weather damage such as cold damage and hail can result in significant drops in production, causing prices of fruit to soar repeatedly.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced that, following an inspection of the winter growth conditions of apples and pears and the current status of early prevention of fruit tree blight, the flower bud growth conditions of pears are maintained at similar levels to previous years. The flower bud differentiation rates for apples were found to be 54% for Fuji and 64% for Hongro, depending on the variety.
Kim Jong-gu, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, visited apple and pear farms in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, on that day to check the growth and prevention situations. Deputy Minister Kim urged officials from the Rural Development Administration, NongHyup, and local governments to "install disaster prevention facilities promptly and distribute cold damage prevention nutrients in a timely manner to ensure thorough growth management."