Changwon City Conducts Special Inspection on Farmland Speculation... 120 Cases of Illegal Land Alteration and Fallow Detected

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Saeyan] Changwon City, Gyeongnam announced on the 6th the results of a special inspection targeting the agricultural sector to investigate whether there were any suspicions of farmland speculation or preferential treatment.

The Agricultural Technology Center conducted a special inspection on 2,669 cases across three areas: farmland usage status, post-management of agricultural subsidies, and tourism farm development projects.

The inspection of farmland usage status targeted 1,692 farmlands whose ownership changed within the last three years and whose owners reside in other cities or provinces.

Changwon City detected 430 cases.

These included 8 cases of illegal land alteration, 112 cases of fallow land, and 310 cases of discrepancies in official documents such as the Agricultural Management Register.

Changwon City issued orders to restore illegally altered farmland, such as those used for other purposes, to their original state.

If the orders are not complied with, legal action will be taken.

Owners of fallow farmland who did not farm will be subject to a hearing process and required to dispose of the farmland or cultivate it within one year.

If the disposal order is not followed, a penalty equivalent to 20% of the official land price will be imposed annually.

For farmland with inconsistent official documents, the data will be corrected after a clarification procedure.

Regarding agricultural subsidies, an investigation was conducted on 973 cases supported in the last five years, detecting 118 cases of irregularities.

Among these, two cases involved selling or lending assets to others despite the post-management period remaining, and the subsidy amounting to 19.58 million KRW will be reclaimed.

The remaining 116 cases involved equipment or facilities purchased with subsidies that were broken, damaged, showed poor crop growth, or were not operated.

Four tourism farm development cases were inspected in total.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, three cases showed sluggish progress in tourism farm development, and one case had not even started construction.

Changwon City stated that it will continuously and periodically supervise and guide tourism farm projects.

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