Nationwide Paddy and Dry Field Cultivated Area Declines for 7 Consecutive Years

< Trend of Cultivated Area by Year >

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] The total cultivated land area, including rice paddies and fields nationwide, has decreased for seven consecutive years.

According to the "2019 Cultivated Land Area Survey Results" released by Statistics Korea on the 24th, the total cultivated land area nationwide last year was 1,581,000 hectares (ha), down 15,000 ha (0.9%) from the previous year. This marks a decline for seven consecutive years since Statistics Korea began remote sensing using satellite imagery in 2012.

Previously, from 1988 to 2011, when statistics were compiled through field surveys, the cultivated land area was also on a continuous downward trend, and the introduction of remote sensing caused a break in the time series.

The actual increase in area was 1,000 ha compared to the previous year, while the actual decrease was 16,000 ha. The main reasons for the reduction in cultivated land area were building construction (6,600 ha), idle land (3,400 ha), and public facilities (2,700 ha), while there was an increase due to reclamation and land development (1,000 ha).

Among the cultivated land, rice paddies accounted for 830,000 ha, a decrease of 14,000 ha (1.7%) from the previous year, while the field area remained the same at 751,000 ha. The proportion of rice paddies in the total cultivated land area was 52.5%, down 0.4 percentage points in one year.

By province, Jeonnam had the largest cultivated land area at 288,000 ha (18.2%), followed by Gyeongbuk (260,000 ha, 16.5%) and Chungnam (210,000 ha, 13.3%).

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