<Anchor>

Today (8th) is Corona 19, and we will focus on the news that volunteer support is needed in rural areas where there are serious shortages.

I'm Yoo Young-soo from Seongnam Branch.

<Reporter> With the

corona19, the number of foreign workers has passed, and the shortage of rural workers is serious.

Volunteers are filling the void, but help is still desperate.

This is a potato field in Namsa-myeon, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do.

More than 40 volunteers sweat in the heat of over 30 degrees and harvest hard potatoes.

Volunteers came out when the farmers, who had a shortage of hands during the harvest season, requested assistance.

Until last year, most of the foreign workers worked, but this year it is difficult to find a manpower even if they give extra money in the aftermath of Corona19.

[Sung-Kyung Shin/Volunteers: (Foreign workers) I've heard a lot of stories about the hard work (farmers) since they all returned to their home countries. So, of course, that alone won't be of much help (I came to serve.)]

Farmers are thankful that they had to throw away 60-70% of the potatoes if they didn't harvest it now.

[Hwang Ho-hyun/Potato Farmers: (foreign workers) came back a lot. Even when it's harvest time, we need to save people and harvest... Agricultural products have a harvest time. But I can't guess that.]

In Yongin, potato, grape, onion, and garlic farmers are currently requesting assistance.

However, because of concerns about corona19 infection, volunteer applicants have decreased by more than half compared to the previous year and are unable to help.

[Ha Jae-bong/Director of Yongin-si Volunteer Center: In the previous year, I did not do a lot of rural volunteer work, but there was not much demand. Mostly, I focused on volunteering towards the underprivileged, but this year, the corona suffered a lot of damage to the farmers.]

Yongin-si said the local military was also asking for assistance in rural areas.

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The center, which will enter Gachon University's Vision Tower, has over 60 types of cutting-edge equipment such as medical devices and electronic test equipment, and will be operated as an open facility jointly utilized by corporations, citizens, and university research institutes.