[Anchor]
As farmers' concerns over the nationwide farmland inspection poured in, the government and the ruling party unveiled supplementary measures. They have decided to defer mandatory dispositions for cases where direct farming is difficult due to inheritance or aging, as well as leasing or fallow farming customarily practiced in rural areas.
Reporter Jeong Seong-jin has the details.
[Reporter]
This is a field in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province.
With not even a proper road in place, it is difficult to even enter.
It is a single plot measuring about 2,300 square meters, or 700 pyeong, but it has more than 70 owners.
Most of them purchased stakes in 2016 and 2017 from all over the country, including Seoul and Busan, under the pretense of running weekend experience farms.
However, as you can see, weeds are growing thick, and the land is currently completely abandoned without any farming activity.
[Nearby Farmer: It has been about 8 or 9 years for me. I don't think I've ever seen anyone farming here.]
The government suspects whether these were speculative acquisitions aimed at development gains or market profits.
Conducting its first-ever nationwide farmland inspection, the government plans to take strict measures such as disposition orders if farmland speculation is confirmed.
However, concerns were raised that if judgments are made solely based on whether the owners themselves farm, customary leasing practices in rural areas would become illegal, causing damages such as tenant farmers losing their cultivated land.
[Lee Don-il / Farmer in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province: Even the land currently being farmed—the landowner says they will farm it themselves and plant trees in the field. Even if I want to farm, I cannot.]
The government and the ruling party stepped out to placate farmers, stating that customary violations are not subject to disposition.
They decided to defer dispositions if farmland is entrusted to the Korea Rural Community Corporation via the Farmland Bank—such as when farmers exchange plots to farm or when a single person consolidates and cultivates village farmland—and to preferentially lease the land to existing cultivators to prevent damage.
Farmland Act violations caused by old age, inheritance, and other factors will also be excluded from disposition targets to support normalization.
[Song Miryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: There is a significant gap between the system and reality in rural areas. We will pave the way to normalize and legalize this during this opportunity.]
The government plans to enact a special measure containing the grounds for disposition deferral and push for revisions to the Farmland Act, which diverges from rural realities.
(Video Editing: Lee So-young, Design: Lee Ga-jin, VJ: Lee Ji-hwan)
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