[2026 New Year's Message] Norman Ho, Chairman of the Korea Federation of Comprehensive Agricultural Organizations (Chairman of the Central Federation of Rural Leaders of Korea)

Published Jan 2, 2026

Tridge summary

[Agricultural and Fisheries Newspaper=Agricultural and Fisheries Newspaper] The year 2026, the year of the red horse, the Bingwu year (丙午年) New Year has dawned. We express our deep gratitude to all those who have been silently protecting agriculture and rural areas despite the difficult conditions of the past year. Looking back, 2025 was a year of continuous, large and small difficulties. With the climate crisis, disasters such as drought, floods, heatwaves, and wildfires have become commonplace, and their scale has increased, while the aging of the agricultural population and the issue of rural depopulation have become even more serious. Coupled with the triple highs of high interest rates, high prices, and high cost of living, and the rapid changes in the international situation, the domestic and international environment has become much more unpredictable and harder to predict than before.

Original content

In the year of the red horse, 2026, the year of Bingwu (丙午年), the new year has dawned. We express our deep gratitude to all those who have silently protected agriculture and rural areas despite the difficult conditions of the past year. Reflecting on 2025, it was a year of continuous challenges, both big and small. The climate crisis led to the normalization of disasters such as droughts, floods, heatwaves, and wildfires, with their scale increasing. The issues of aging agricultural population and rural depopulation became even more serious. Coupled with high interest rates, high prices, and high costs, along with the rapid changes in international situations, the domestic and international environment became much more unpredictable and difficult to forecast than before. Nevertheless, it was a year that laid the groundwork for new directions and changes in agricultural policy with the inauguration of a new government. The Korea Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives, along with ...

Source: Aflnews