Minister Song Mi-ryeong visited a facility horticulture farm in Buyeo, Chungcheongnam-do, which suffered damage from heavy rainfall, on the morning of the 20th to comfort the affected farmers and inspect the progress of emergency recovery.
According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, from the 16th to 7 a.m. on the 20th, Sancheong-gun in Gyeongnam recorded 793.5 mm of rain, Hapcheon-gun recorded 699.0 mm, and Hadong-gun recorded 621.5 mm. Additionally, record rainfall was also observed in Seosan (578.3 mm), Damyang-gun (552.5 mm), Gwangju (536.1 mm), and Gurye-gun (534.0 mm).
As of 5 p.m. on the 19th, a total of 24,247 hectares of crops, including rice, legumes, melons, watermelons, and peppers, were inundated due to this heavy rainfall, and livestock losses were preliminarily reported as 60 head of cattle, 829 pigs, and 930,000 chickens. The exact extent of the damage will be determined through detailed local government investigations in the future. By region, the most damage occurred in Chungnam, followed by Jeonnam.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is fully mobilizing to respond by activating a collaborative system with local governments to ensure rapid disaster recovery funds and disaster insurance payments, as well as deploying the available agricultural disaster insurance survey personnel as much as possible. In addition, to aid in pest control and recovery of crop growth after the heavy rainfall, they are also supplying fertilizers and nutritional supplements at discounted prices.
Minister Song noted, "To prevent secondary damage, I urge the local governments, the Korea Agricultural Research Organization, and NongHyup to actively cooperate in efforts to recover damaged crops and prevent pests and diseases." She added, "We plan to provide insurance payments and recovery funds through a swift loss assessment and damage investigation of the losses."