President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday said fostering agriculture as a new growth engine and export industry is a "task of our times," stressing the government's ongoing efforts to boost the farming sector.

In a video message at a ceremony that the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation held to launch an agricultural support center, she also highlighted the need to produce value-added farm products through a combination of creative ideas, information and communications technologies, and other useful means.

"The government has been offering various types of support for the agricultural sector so as to overcome difficulties confronting farming, such as the opening of the market and the aging population (in rural towns), and to create new (business) opportunities (in the sector)," the president stressed.

"I hope that the agricultural support center will back the government's efforts by providing education, mentoring and counseling, and systematically offering assistance in terms of financing and sales networks," she added. (Yonhap)