Gyeonggi Province Promotes 'Creating Beautiful Farms' Initiative

Gyeonggi Province has decided to implement the "Creating Beautiful Farms" project targeting 70 farms in 7 municipalities surrounding the Paldang water source this year.

According to the province on the 14th, considering the reality that livestock farming—an important source of nutrition and a vital industry—has become stigmatized as a nuisance industry due to odors and environmental degradation, it has decided to select 70 livestock farms in 7 municipalities around Paldang Lake and conduct improvement projects.

The target farms have no distinction by livestock type such as cattle, pigs, or chickens, and 10 million won in project funds will be allocated per farm.

Accordingly, starting next month, these farms will treat livestock manure odors to prevent emissions, clean and organize farm surroundings including access roads and farm signs, and also carry out landscape projects such as creating flower gardens, planting trees, and installing ponds to create beautiful rural-style farms.

The province has particularly selected one farm each in Yeoju and Icheon to implement an aquatic plant cultivation project that provides secondary purification treatment of wastewater discharged from farms using aquatic plants.

A provincial official stated, "When it comes to livestock farming, there is a strong image of it as a nuisance facility due to unclean farm environments such as odors, pests, and water pollution," and added, "Through the Creating Beautiful Farms project going forward, we will work to ensure that livestock farming is recognized as an important source of nutrition and a vital industry that produces food."