Government Releases Late Measures as Farmland Survey Controversy Grows

[Anchor]

Amid ongoing controversy surrounding the comprehensive farmland survey, the government has unveiled yet another follow-up measure. While making it clear that lands will not be ordered for disposal unless clear speculation is involved and announcing plans to enact a special law within the year, criticism is mounting that these measures are coming in too late.

Reporter Jeong Seong-jin has the details.

[Reporter]

When the government announced in July that basic results from the comprehensive farmland survey showed one out of every four inspected sites was suspected of violating the Farmland Act, farmers' outrage erupted.

[Lee Kwan-ho / Farmer in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province: (Because landowners are elderly) and cannot farm, we are the ones farming it. We don't think it's right to impose compulsory compliance fines or force us to sell.]

The government, the ruling party, and even the president stepped in to calm the situation, explaining that the measures were intended to target obvious speculation. Last month, they announced plans to push for a special measure to defer disposal orders for conventional violations.

However, as farmers' discontent persisted, the government released new measures today (Oct. 8), firmly drawing the line that lands will "not be disposed of" unless they involve speculation.

[Song Miryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: People might misunderstand and think, 'Won't it just be disposed of after being deferred for a certain period?' so we are making that part crystal clear. No disposals will be made as a result of this investigation.]

The government outlined three major types of speculative activities, such as acquiring farmland with false farming plans and leaving it neglected, while stating that five other types—including inherited farmland and conventional leasing by elderly farmers, which have been sources of controversy—will be excluded from disposal orders.

The government also stepped back from its previous policy of deferring disposal through consignment to the Korea Rural Community Corporation's Farmland Bank.

[Song Miryung / Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: Consignment to the Farmland Bank is not a mandatory requirement to avoid disposal. We are not going to demand Farmland Bank consignment from those who simply wish to maintain their current status.]

The government plans to enact the special law within the year and amend the Farmland Act in the first half of next year.

However, critics point out that warnings about the need for measures regarding conventional rural practices were raised even before the nationwide survey began, making criticism over reactive, belated policy inevitable.

[Shin Jang-sic / Rebuilding Korea Party Lawmaker (Yesterday, Parliamentary Audit of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs): Four months ago, the National Assembly Research Service said, 'You need to prepare these measures before conducting a comprehensive farmland survey.' Why didn't you prepare them?]

Meanwhile, the government announced that it has temporarily suspended the use of Chinese-made drones for farmland photography following security concerns.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Camera Reporter: Lee Jae-young | Video Editor: Yu Mi-ra | Designer: Kang Yoon-jung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.