Gwangju City Conducts Nationwide Farmland Usage Survey and Farm Register Maintenance

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 10th that it will conduct the ‘2020 National Farmland Usage Survey’ and ‘Farmland Register Maintenance’ from the 10th until November 30.

The farmland usage survey is being promoted as a part of farmland post-management to verify whether farmers are lawfully using farmland after acquiring it, in order to realize the constitutional principle of “Gyeonja Yujeon” (the principle that land should be farmed by those who cultivate it).

This year’s survey targets a total of 11,700 hectares of farmland whose ownership changed after issuance of farmland acquisition qualification certificates within the last five years (from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2020).

Before the survey, Gwangju produced leaflets and placards for promoting the farmland lease consignment project and distributed them to the community service centers of the five autonomous districts.

Additionally, with 150 million KRW of national funding for farmland usage management projects, personnel will be supported to the autonomous districts to compare lease information between the farmland registers of out-of-area cultivators and agricultural management entity registration information, focusing on farmland suspected of illegal leasing where discrepancies exist.

The farmland usage survey will be conducted in conjunction with the comprehensive maintenance of farmland registers. For farmland owned by elderly persons (80 years or older) and out-of-area residents, who are the main targets of farmland register maintenance, administrative measures such as imposing ‘farmland disposal obligations’ will be taken after a hearing process to check for signs of illegal leasing.

Kim Hyun-jung, head of the Life Agriculture Division of the city, said, “With the implementation of the public interest direct payment reform, demands for strengthening management of illegal farmland ownership and leasing have increased significantly. We will continuously manage farmland to ensure it is used for agricultural business purposes and not targeted for speculation by non-farmers.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.