Ministry of Agriculture’s 2027 budget proposal reaches 22 trillion won… controversy over AI agricultural robots at 46.66 million won each

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has drawn up its 2027 budget proposal with total expenditures of 22.2215 trillion won, up 10.4% from the previous year (20.1362 trillion won). Both the increase (2.0853 trillion won) and the growth rate are the largest since 2000. The government explained that, through this budget proposal, it will make “physical AI, data, and the spread of smart agriculture” a future growth engine and launch a large number of related new projects.

However, deep concerns and sharp criticism are emerging from the field that the plan focuses only on supplying hardware, without investment in communications infrastructure and dedicated organizations related to advanced agtech.

What good are only the latest appliances if there is no Wi-Fi at home?
Professor Jeong Seon-ok of Chungnam National University (president of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery) pointed out that the government’s latest budget proposal is skewed toward introducing physical AI machines.

Professor Jeong said, “No matter how excellent the large-company appliances brought into a home may be, they are useless if the house itself is a thatched cottage or if Wi-Fi (a communications network) is not installed inside,” adding, “Infrastructure such as communications facilities must be built together on farmland, and there must be a specialized organization that processes and analyzes data from advanced machinery and links it to services, but investment in that is missing.”

She continued, “A model in which only machines are introduced and private companies are told to handle after-sales management on their own is not sustainable,” stressing, “At the initial priming stage, the government and local governments should build communications infrastructure and data management systems, and organizational restructuring should come first, including creating a dedicated unit within agricultural technology centers and hiring regular professional extension personnel.”

The concern is that if only machines are transferred to local governments without organizational restructuring, education and training will not follow, the entity responsible for acquiring data will become unclear, and equipment supplied with public funds could be left idle within a few years.
 

Can “210 AI agricultural robots for 9.8 billion won” be procured at 46.6 million won each?
A look at the actual budget details makes field concerns even more concrete. The ministry will newly introduce next year the “AI Farm Machinery Sharing Center (15 locations·2.3 billion won)” and the “On-site Supply of AI Agricultural Robots (210 units·9.8 billion won)” projects.

Mr. A, an agricultural machinery industry official who requested anonymity, said, “If the budget is 9.8 billion won for 210 agricultural robots, the unit price is about 46.66 million won,” and assessed, “It is questionable whether it is realistically possible to procure high-performance domestic AI robots applicable in the field at this price.”

On the ground, there are concerns that the low unit-price structure could instead encourage the entry of low-cost imported robots whose quality has not been verified, adversely affecting the domestic agtech industry ecosystem. Regarding this allocation, he criticized it as “a ‘drop in the bucket’ budget that is insufficient to quench the thirst in the field.”

There are also criticisms that the distinction between existing farm machinery rental offices and the newly introduced “AI Farm Machinery Sharing Centers” is not clear. The ministry has also newly included in next year’s budget proposal the “operation of city-county integrated farm machinery rental offices (1 location·1.2 billion won).” The point is that infrastructure based on similar concepts may be built redundantly without a clear division of functions.

In addition, the existing “Expansion of AI-based Smart Agriculture Solution Supply” project saw its total budget increase 41.1% from 5.6 billion won to 7.9 billion won, but as the number of target locations increased 56.3% from 16 to 25, the average budget per location fell 9.7% from 350 million won to 316 million won.

The same applies to the project to expand ICT convergence in open-field smart agriculture. Its budget increased 40.8% from 10.3 billion won to 14.5 billion won, but as the number of target locations increased 60% from 5 to 8, the budget per location fell 12.1% from 2.06 billion won to 1.81 billion won. Both ongoing projects have a structure in which the total amount increases while the scale of support per location decreases.
 

Ministry of Agriculture says limits remain for new projects… will seek supplements through cooperation with the National Assembly and local governments
Choi Min-ji, director of the Advanced Equipment and Seeds Division at the ministry, which oversees the relevant projects, explained that there were limitations due to the introduction of new projects. Director Choi explained, “The AI Farm Machinery Sharing Center is a project that uses the facilities and infrastructure of existing farm machinery rental offices to additionally purchase and support advanced agricultural machinery,” adding, “Because it is a new project, there were limitations in the process of securing the budget.” She continued, “After operating it on a trial basis next year, if the response from the field is good, we plan to continue increasing the budget, and as it is a project reflected in the national policy agenda, we will make efforts so that an increase can be made at the National Assembly review stage.”

Regarding criticism over the absence of infrastructure and dedicated personnel, she added, “Some related elements are included in the existing budget for supporting farm machinery rental offices, but there are limits to significantly increasing regular jobs or the budget by the ministry alone. There must be applications from local governments for the ministry to provide support,” adding, “We will supplement it during the National Assembly review and in the actual operation process.”