[News Today] YOUNG FARMERS ON THE RISE

[LEAD]
Youth employment challenges are driving more young people towards agriculture and rural life. With government support, these emerging agriculturists receive systematic education and planning, crafting their own success stories.

[REPORT]
Elementary school students are trying their hands at strawberry harvesting.

A girl takes a big bite of a strawberry she picked and the children make yummy treats.

Former social worker Lee Hye-jin left her city life behind and started an interactive strawberry farm in a rural community.

Although she has no connections to the area, she learned farming with the help of the local government program for young farmers.

She then opened a smart farm partly subsidized by the local government.

Three years later, her farm became a popular strawberry experience farm.

Lee Hye-jin/ Strawberry Farmer in Nonsan
I should have started earlier. It feels a little late, but this is a good job for young people because young novice farmers are still coming in droves.

The young farmers program, adopted in 2018, so far has produced some 1,800 new farmers in the Chungcheongnam-do area alone.

Nationwide, the program turned roughly 5,000 young people into farmers, more than tripling the number over the past four years.

Instead of looking for a city job with an unclear future, young people started paying attention to an unfettered life in a farming community.

They stand to receive systematic training and management as well as the assistance of a low-interest cultivation fund of up to 500 million won, or about 357,000 U.S. dollars, for three years.

Kim Bo-ra/ Nonsan Farming Instructor
They should do the legwork to find good locations, train at a farm first rather than making a big investment from the start.

The government plans to nurture some 30,000 young farmers by 2027.

But people increasingly demand changing the age limit of 'under forty'.