South Korea will reduce its rice paddies some 4.5 percent in 2017 from this year as part of an ongoing effort to deal with a chronic supply glut of the staple crop, the farm ministry here said Monday.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said it has set the target of nationwide rice cultivation area at 744,000 hectares next year, down 35,000 from this year's 779,000.


The ministry said it will help farmers convert their rice paddies into fields growing other crops.

The decision came as South Korea has been suffering from an oversupply of rice for years. The annual rice consumption of the South Korean population has been on a sharp decline due mainly to changes in diet and eating habits.

The country has some 300,000 tons of rice in excess this year, as the 4.2-million-ton supply situation exceeds the 3.9 million tons expected to be consumed.

In order to remove the oversupply in the market, The government purchased all of this year's rice surplus and set them aside in the form of public reserves.

Per capita rice consumption reached 62.9 kilograms per year in 2015, sharply down from the 128.1 kg tallied in 1985, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. (Yonhap)