(Cheongju=Yonhap News) Reporter Cheon Kyung-hwan = Cheongju City announced on the 9th that it will provide 580 million won in disaster relief funds to 330 farms affected by agricultural disasters, including heat waves, this year. The recipients include ginseng farms affected by the heat waves in July and August (49.2 hectares), rice farms affected by blight due to high temperatures and heavy rains (124 hectares), and cabbage (81 hectares) and soybean (32.7 hectares) farms affected by the autumn rains in September and October. The disaster relief funds will be provided at a rate of 4.32 million won per hectare for ginseng, 2.4 million won per hectare for cabbage, and 820,000 won per hectare for rice and soybeans, and will be disbursed within this month. A city official emphasized the importance of crop disaster insurance in response to natural disasters, urging farmers to take a keen interest in the crop disaster insurance, for which local governments support more than 90% of the premiums.