Korea has become a founding member of a newly established global fund aimed at boosting the agricultural efficiency of developing nations.

Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun, who is in Washington for the Group of 20 finance ministers' meeting, attended the launch ceremony of the fund on Friday, Korea time, at the U.S. Treasury.

The establishment of the fund was agreed upon by world leaders at last year's G20 summit in Pittsburgh, with the aim to improve agricultural productivity and the farming environment in developing countries.

The U.S. will invest 475 million dollars and South Korea 50 million dollars in the one-billion-dollar fund.

The fund's target goal is to cut in half the percentage of the world’s population earning less than one dollar a day by 2015 compared to the figure in 1995.