In response to declining rural agricultural communities, South Korea is making efforts through startup accelerators to turn those rural areas
into a space of creativity where not only farmers but also young people, innovators, and entrepreneurs want to stay.
Sejong, 23 May 2024 — On 22 April, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) announced the finalized list of startup
accelerators to discover startups showing high performance in the convergence industry of agriculture and related sectors1).
The startup accelerators are Korea Social Investment Foundation (KSIF) and a consortium of ROWE Partners and Chungnam National University
Technology Holdings.
1) An industry of creating added value by converging domestic agricultural produce with the manufacturing and processing sector (the secondary
industrial sector) and the agricultural experience and tourism sector (the tertiary industrial sector).
The ministry has been running a project to provide the private sector-led support for agri-food business startups. Starting from this year, the ministry
decided to strengthen a startup ecosystem in rural agricultural areas by expanding its support range from the current agri-food technology fields such as
smart farming and food tech to include the field of agriculture-industries convergence.
Each of the two selected startup accelerators will discover 10 or more startups working in the field of agriculture-industries convergence, and provide them
with a wide range of support, including corporate management assessment, mentoring, startup accelerators’ investment worth KRW 280 million or more, and promotion of private investment in startups (e.g. hosting a demo day).
To be eligible to receive the support, a startup must be government-certified as a company working in the field of agriculture-industries convergence
and have a business operation history of no more than 7 years. The official website has been open to receive applications for the support from 2 May.
Detailed programmes are available on websites of “농식품 창업 정보망” (www.a-startups.or.kr), “K-Startup 창업지원포털” (www.k-startup.go.kr),
and “6차산업” (6차산업.com).
Director General Jong-gu Kim of the MAFRA’s Agricultural Policy Bureau said: “There are many promising businesses with high growth potential
in rural agricultural areas. In response to declining rural agricultural communities, we will make efforts to turn those rural areas into a space of creativity
where not only farmers but also young people, innovators, and entrepreneurs want to stay.”