Solve Labor Shortage During Farming Season through Agricultural Machinery Rental

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun] On the 27th, Yongin City announced that it will rent out 38 types and 159 units of agricultural machinery to help local farms address labor shortages during the farming season.

Any Yongin City resident or person who owns farmland within the city can rent agricultural machinery after completing a mandatory safety education course.

The available machinery includes 38 types and 159 units such as agricultural tractors, fertilizer spreaders, harvesters, and field management machines, with each person able to rent up to one unit for a maximum of three days. Rental fees range from 10,000 won to 210,000 won depending on the purchase price of the machine.

Farmers seeking to rent machinery can apply via phone (031-324-4073) or visit the city's agricultural machinery rental business office Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Notably, this year the city has secured two automatic seeders that have been improved to significantly reduce labor during potato seeding.

These machines are used in connection with a tractor and can perform the entire process of seeding potatoes, covering them with soil, and laying plastic sheeting in one operation.

Since the ridge height and seeding intervals are maintained consistently, productivity can be increased, and with a daily work area reaching approximately 3,000 square meters, it provides significant labor savings.

The existing potato seeder had the disadvantage that the entire process could not be completed by machine in one operation, as there were inconsistencies between the ridge height, seeding depth, plastic covering work, and field conditions.

To address this, Kang Jin-seok, a specialized career officer at the city's agricultural machinery rental business office, conducted on-site consulting over two years and improved and supplemented the seeder by standardizing specifications such as ridge height of 30-50 cm, width of 90 cm, and potato vine shredding at 100 cm.

A city official stated, "We will continue to improve and supplement rental machinery so that farms can use them conveniently and help address labor shortages."