The government will begin the "Reliable Meal for Workers" program, which provides monthly meal support of about 40,000 won to workers in industrial complexes and employees of small and medium-sized enterprises, starting next year. It will expand the budget for the strategic crop direct payment system and include rice for supply and demand adjustment as a new item, speeding up agricultural policy restructuring. The budget for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs next year is 20 trillion 350 billion won, surpassing the 20 trillion won mark for the first time.
On the 1st, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced that it has simultaneously strengthened daily life-oriented support and agricultural structural improvement projects to quickly link key tasks of the new government to results. Next year's budget will increase by 6.9% (1 trillion 293.4 billion won) compared to this year.
"Reliable Meal for Workers" targets about 4,000 workers in industrial complexes and 50,000 employees of small and medium-sized enterprises in population decline areas. In the morning, it provides up to 40,000 won per month to workers in industrial complexes and in the afternoon to small and medium-sized enterprise employees. A total of 54,000 people are eligible, and a budget of 7.9 billion won has been allocated. The support for "1,000 won breakfast" aimed at university students will also expand, with next year's budget increasing to 11.1 billion won.
The snack program for low-grade elementary school students, which was suspended during the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, will resume next year. About 600,000 1st and 2nd grade students from the "New Spring School" will receive a cup of fruit once a week. The agricultural food voucher program for low-income households will also be expanded to 74 billion won, and pregnant women and youth will be included in the support targets.
To prevent excessive rice production, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs expanded the budget for the strategic crop direct payment system to 419.6 billion won, an increase of 175.6 billion won from this year. The area will increase to 205,000 hectares and some item prices will also rise. In particular, starting next year, 20,000 hectares of "rice for supply and demand adjustment" will be newly included, which will only be used for processing during normal times but can be utilized as table rice in case of supply shortages. A total of 10 billion won will be invested in this item.
Additionally, the loan fund for the purchase of rice by rice processing complexes (RPC) will increase to 1 trillion 430.8 billion won, an increase of 100 billion won, and a new budget of 2.9 billion won for promoting rice consumption has also been allocated. In response to concerns over excessive soybean production, the government will increase its stockpile from 30,000 tons to 60,000 tons and allocate 315 billion won.
The budget for preparing agriculture for the future has also increased. To foster an artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem, a public-private joint investment platform will be established with 70.5 billion won, and the budget for research and development (R&D) for AI-based agricultural collaborative robots and growth diagnosis technology will increase by 15.2% to 261.2 billion won. A new smart agriculture innovation growth fund of 100 billion won will also be created.
The budget for supporting agricultural exports will also be expanded. The export voucher support amount will double this year to 76 billion won, and 510 billion won will be invested in financial support for agricultural export companies. Support for exporting traditional liquor utilizing overseas diplomatic missions and budgets for fostering strategic items by region have also been newly reflected.