​1. Purpose and Contents of the Study

❚ Research objective

￮ In terms of its discussion, planning, and implementation procedures, ‘the Public Value Support Project for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Rural Communities in Jeonbuk’ (the Project) is evaluated as an innovative case of regional agricultural policy. It significantly supplements the central government’s public interest direct payment system.

￮ This study aims to diagnose the Project and examine its policy effects in order to provide the base data for a conditional agreement on establishing social security systems.

❚ Research methods

￮ We reviewed previous studies and policy data to describe the significance and features of the public interest allowance the Project for farmers and fishers, as well as to analyze the Project’s progress. Additionally, we consulted with Jeonbuk advisory task force to identify improvement areas.

￮ Based on the proportional allocation of farmer surveys by region, age, and gender, we conducted statistical analyses to diagnose the Project’s implementation progress, analyze the expected Project’s impact, explore relevant influencing factors, and investigate the economic ripple effects of interindustry methods.

2. Conclusion and Policy Proposal

❚ Diagnosis of the Project’s efficiency and effectiveness

￮ (Awareness/Satisfaction): Relatively high levels of Project awareness (66.3%) and satisfaction (65.5%) with the Program’s objective and conditions.

￮ (Compliance): High compliance (76.2%) with the Program’s implementation conditions (required + optional).

￮ (Use of allowances): Primarily utilized for farming and household essentials, such as agricultural materials (42.4%), food (21.8%), and day-to-day necessities (20.9%).

￮ (Improvement areas): Suggested improvement areas include the following: expanding eligibility and payment amounts, reinforcing the monitoring of benefit fraud, linking the program scope to financial conditions, streamlining application procedures, expanding the number of franchisees, easing ineligibility criteria, and easing implementation conditions.

❚ Analysis of anticipated impacts

￮ Many survey respondents (70.4%) believe that the Program, as part of the Project, is expected to achieve its objectives with positive effects on agricultural management, farming households, community vitality, public interest, self-esteem, and motivation to act.

￮ Effects by category: Willingness to reduce fertilizers and agricultural pesticides usage (75.8%), willingness to participate in community activities (74.5%), contributions to farming community vitality (73.3%), improvement of farmers’ self-esteem (72.6%), contributions to making public interest-related functions sustainable (72.3%), contributions to sustainable production activities (69.3%), contributions to farming management (69.2%), contributions to farming household income (68.3%), and contributions to expanding farming businesses (58.1%).

❚ Ripple effects analysis

￮ Our analysis of the Program’s ripple effect (allowances paid to farmers and fishermen in the form of a local business voucher) reveals gains in industrial production (84.11 billion KRW), value added (33.99 KRW), and employment (989 jobs) that have a positive effect on the regional economy.

￮ The internalization rate derived from local voucher effects is 68.2% (cash 44.3%) for production, 68.7% (cash 47.7%) for value-added, and 80.3% (cash 56.4%) for employment, indicating that voucher payment has a greater regional effect than that of cash payment.

￮ Even when contrasted to investing an equivalent budget size in SOC, such as construction and public administration projects, the analysis revealed that the Program’s effect on production, value-added, and employment in the region was greater.

❚ Improvement areas

￮ The Project and Program should be built on the basic premise that they are social contracts between the local government, farmers, and fishers that outline each party’s roles and responsibilities in maintaining and promoting their public interest nature.

① Streamlining application procedures and required documents

- To relieve the burden of submitting required application documents for each farmer, it is necessary to review the possibility of excluding documents that can be verified at the community or village level by the community or village head.

② Stricter monitoring of compliance with implementation criteria and expansion of self-regulation practice

- As implementation conditions are a necessity for achieving policy objectives, efforts should be made to strengthen educational sessions and expand self-regulation practices so that farmers are required to comply with implementation conditions regardless of their assessment of the conditions’ validity.

③ Securing the transparency of support activities through reinforced monitoring and inspections

- In order to implement the Program effectively, regular inspections of the Program’s processes should be reinforced, and stricter monitoring and more rigorous evaluations should be conducted at the community level, given that applications are made on a community basis.

④ Increasing the number of franchisees to facilitate voucher usage

- In order for the Program to make tangible contributions to farmers and their families, it is imperative to increase the number of franchisees in cities and counties that accept local business vouchers; for this, the Jeonbuk Provincial Government must provide strong support.

⑤ Expanding eligibility and payment amount

- As many farmers strongly desire an expansion of eligibility and payment amount, policy improvements are necessary. However, given the current financial conditions, the provincial government and farmers must collaborate to strike a happy medium for practical solutions​