Korea Launches First-Ever Nationwide Farmland Survey

The Korean government is launching its first-ever comprehensive survey of all farmland nationwide. The survey will likely begin with the Seoul metropolitan area and adjacent regions before gradually expanding, considering practical constraints.

According to government sources on June 3, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs will begin the nationwide farmland survey as early as this month.

Given that total farmland area nationwide reached approximately 1.5 million hectares as of last year, preliminary data organization and risk screening of parcels will likely precede full-scale field inspections. The approach under consideration involves organizing owner information, lease status, farmland acquisition qualification certificates, and past disposal notices, then narrowing inspection targets through cross-analysis of administrative data.

Priority inspection targets will likely include farmland within land transaction permit zones, farmland acquired by non-local residents, and areas near the capital region with high development demand. Given current staffing and budget constraints, analysts say a phased approach is realistic—starting with areas where speculation incentives are relatively high, such as regions where large-scale industrial complexes or semiconductor cluster development plans have been announced.

Survey timing and methodology remain variables. Field inspections must go beyond simple crop cultivation verification to comprehensively examine illegal conversions, facility installations, and whether actual land use matches agricultural management plans. Given that annual surveys have been conducted during crop identification seasons, this comprehensive survey will likely incorporate drones and satellite data to enhance precision after May, when crop cultivation begins in earnest.

"A nationwide comprehensive survey has limitations with physical manpower alone," said Kim Han-ho, professor of agricultural economics at Seoul National University. "Active use of digital technology such as drones and satellite data could significantly increase survey efficiency while reducing administrative burden."

This survey stems from President Lee Jae-myung's emphasis on normalizing farmland management and ongoing debates over the effectiveness of existing regulations. The Farmland Act requires farmland to be used for agricultural purposes and principally restricts speculative holdings. When violations are detected, a "disposal obligation notice" is issued first, with a one-year deadline to sell. Failure to comply triggers a disposal order, and if the land remains unsold after an additional six months, annual enforcement fines of up to 25% of the official land price are imposed.

Execution records show many cases where disposal orders did not result in actual sales. According to ministry data, annual enforcement fines rose steadily from 4.795 billion won in 2019 to 6.725 billion in 2020, 7.708 billion in 2021, 9.005 billion in 2022, and 11.158 billion won in 2023.

President Lee's recent emphasis on forced sales of unauthorized fallow land is interpreted as targeting this structural issue. At a cabinet meeting on May 24, he stated, "Fallow land is subject to forced sale, yet there have been no cases of sale orders being executed," directing officials to ensure actual disposal enforcement. The message was clear: enforcement must go beyond mere fines to achieve actual disposals.

Analysts expect the comprehensive survey to increase the scale of detected violations. However, some warn that without an enforcement structure that leads from detection to actual sales, the policy's effectiveness may be limited. A government official said, "For this survey, precision in design matters more than speed."