The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has awarded special bonuses of up to 15 million won to public officials who achieved tangible results that benefit the public.
On November 13, the ministry announced that it selected 22 special achievements at the government complex in Sejong City, awarding bonuses and ministerial commendations. This marks the third round of special achievement awards this year, following one in August, aimed at promoting a culture of innovative performance among public officials.
The awardees were chosen through a process that included recommendations from colleagues, self-nominations, evaluations by internal and external experts, and an online assessment involving the general public. Over 810 citizens participated in the online evaluation.
The highest award of 15 million won went to Park Yeon-deok, an official at the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service, and one other individual. They were recognized for their efforts in detecting malicious false reports aimed at exploiting the origin labeling system, analyzing 15,000 field photographs and 5,200 pages of evidence. They proved instances of proxy reporting and recovered approximately 62 million won in improperly awarded bonuses and interest under the Public Finance Recovery Act, thereby preventing harm to small businesses from repeated false reporting and establishing fair trading practices.
Among those receiving 10 million won were cases that utilized artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce farm damage and shift the pesticide residue management system to a preventive approach. The National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service reanalyzed 19,378 pesticide residue tests over five years, developing an AI risk prediction model for 33 cities and counties in the metropolitan area, providing preventive information to 13,791 farmers. As a result, the rate of pesticide residue non-compliance decreased from 2.2% to 1.8%.
Other notable achievements included converting 33 tons of confiscated Chinese agricultural products into compost for farmers instead of incinerating them, reducing disposal costs by 54%, and establishing a generative AI-based avian disease diagnosis management system that cut the average diagnosis time from 14.1 days to 7.2 days, a reduction of about 49%.
Additionally, cases that uncovered fraudulent agricultural subsidy claims leading to the recovery and sanctions of 1.26 billion won, overcoming anticipated chicken supply shortages due to the culling of broiler breeders, and a public-private partnership that increased apple production by 10.8% compared to the previous year, contributing to price stabilization, also received 10 million won awards.
Furthermore, 15 other achievements related to responses to heatwaves and droughts, expanding agricultural exports, introducing an animal welfare livestock subsidy system, and stabilizing the supply of essential agricultural materials received 500,000 won each.
Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Song Mi-ryung stated, "Public officials who create outstanding results must receive corresponding rewards. Through fair and exceptional compensation, we will continue to generate innovative outcomes that the public can feel."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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