"Give It Back If You Won't Farm It!"... Government to Acquire and Lease Farmland to Youths at Low Prices

In the government's first-ever nationwide comprehensive farmland survey, about 2.84 million parcels, or 27% of the surveyed targets, were classified as suspected violations of the Farmland Act.

The government plans to finalize legal violations through in-depth investigations by the end of the year, and if owners fail to sell their farmland or farm it themselves despite a disposal order, the government intends to purchase the land.

The budget allocated for related projects next year is 886.8 billion won.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has been conducting a comprehensive survey targeting farmland nationwide since May.

Under the Farmland Act, farmers or agricultural corporations that acquire farmland must, in principle, farm the land themselves, and must not leave the land idle without legitimate reasons or lease it illegally.

In this basic survey, suspected cases included 21.1% for illegal tenancy, 11.6% for unauthorized idling, and 9% for illegal conversion.

Based on these findings, the government plans to conduct in-depth investigations by the end of the year to determine actual violations of the Farmland Act.

Once confirmed as farmland in violation of the law, owners can be ordered to dispose of the property.

If the owner fails to dispose of the farmland within the designated period and does not engage in farming, the Korea Rural Community Corporation will initiate procedures to purchase the land.

To this end, the government has allocated 886.8 billion won for next year's customized farmland support projects.

This accounts for approximately 95% of the Ministry's 925.7 billion won in new project budgets for next year.

The government plans to use the acquired farmland to lease it at low rates to young farmers and full-time farmers.

This investigation was promoted in accordance with the instruction of President Lee Jae-myung to track down and take action on farmland held for speculative purposes.

In the agricultural sector, some point out that given how aging and severed farming successions make farmland leasing inevitable in quite a few cases, the reality of rural areas should be taken into consideration rather than uniform disposals.

(Reported by Kim Min-jeong | Video by Jang Yu-jin | Design by Lee Jeong-ju | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.