[Provided by Yeongyang-gun Council]
[Provided by Yeongyang-gun Council]

The Yeongyang-gun Council in North Gyeongsang Province concluded its 14-day extraordinary session Monday, wrapping up the 314th extraordinary session's fourth plenary meeting after a run that began July 28.

During the session, the council deliberated on and passed a total of 11 agenda items, including two ordinance bills — among them the "Yeongyang-gun Autonomous Police Affairs Support Ordinance" — eight consent motions and one opinion-hearing proposal.

The council also formed a budget and accounts special committee to review and approve the second supplementary budget, and established an administrative audit special committee that adopted an administrative audit plan.

The session's most notable action was a resolution adopted at the first plenary meeting on July 28, jointly proposed by lawmaker Gu Jin-hoe and others, calling for guaranteed livelihoods for pepper-farming households and preemptive price-stabilization measures.

Yeongyang-gun is South Korea's foremost pepper-producing region, with 1,807 of its 4,588 farming households — about 40 percent — growing peppers. The pepper industry accounts for an overwhelming share of the local economy and farm income.

Surging fuel, labor and materials costs have already pushed production expenses to record highs, while cheap imports of dried and frozen peppers entering the market through tariff-rate quota arrangements are squeezing domestic prices, leaving farmers facing a deeper sense of economic crisis than ever before.

In response, the council used the resolution to strongly urge central government ministries and the National Assembly to act on four demands: the immediate establishment of a large-scale preemptive emergency purchase plan, the introduction of a minimum production-cost guarantee for peppers, and the creation of a sustainable supply-and-demand management system, among other measures.

Council Speaker Hong Jeom-pyo said the hardships pepper farmers are enduring "can no longer be put off," adding that he hoped the government and the National Assembly would "take this resolution seriously and swiftly put in place preemptive and effective measures."


kbj7653@heraldcorp.com