NH NongHyup Financial Holdings said on Tuesday it will expand financial support for young people.

NH Investment & Securities will expand an "agrifood crowdfunding support programme" for young farmers. It plans to help them secure sales channels for agricultural products and strengthen brand competitiveness to build a sustainable farming base.

Those eligible will be expanded from a focus on graduates of the Young Farmer Officer School to include returning farmers and women farmers. The scale of support will also increase to 100 farms from about 20 farms.

In addition to existing cooperation with the NongHyup Federation, the support will also provide marketing and brand consulting by external professional consultants using a shared growth cooperation fund.

It will also work with Naver to run a 40-day crowdfunding campaign. It will provide agricultural product sales and distribution consulting as well, supporting about 3.3 million won per farm.

The structure is that the NongHyup Federation and NH Investment & Securities select farms and conduct consulting, while Naver provides the crowdfunding platform.

NH NongHyup Bank is expanding financial support for local youth in cooperation with local governments.

Lee Chan-woo (이찬우), chairman of NH NongHyup Financial Holdings, said, "We will continue to expand financial support to help young people and farmers build a foundation for self-reliance, and we will practice inclusive finance that grows together with local communities."