Seongnam City "Full-scale employment of Chungbuk-style urban farmers and foreign seasonal workers"

(Voice=Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Hyeong-woo = On the 3rd, the Eumseong County in North Chungcheong announced that it will be launching a workforce supply system to resolve the rural labor shortage by utilizing Chungbuk-style urban farmers, foreign seasonal workers, and rural labor intermediary centers as early as possible. Starting with the arrival of 21 Laotian workers on the same day, the county plans to sequentially deploy 891 foreign seasonal workers to 295 farms in 13 batches by July. Moreover, the rural labor intermediary center, which matches local labor, will begin full-scale operations next month. The Eumseong Agricultural Cooperative, which operates the center, plans to match and mediate specialized labor to farms in Eumseong-eup, Soi-myeon, and Wonnam-myeon from March. Regarding the Chungbuk-style urban farmer project, the county supported the first labor force to fruit farms last month and is currently connecting labor to fruit and flower farms. Furthermore, starting this year, a computerized management system for urban farmers will be introduced to swiftly resolve issues that arise during support and matching processes. A county official stated, "We will do our best to support farmers so they can manage their agriculture without worrying about labor shortages."