Farmland census gains momentum as formal lease contracts surge 61%

A government-led nationwide farmland census is gaining full momentum, with written lease contracts processed through the Korea Rural Community Corporation's Farmland Bank up 61 percent from last year.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said Thursday that Minister Song Mi-ryung presided over a progress review of the farmland census at the Paltan-myeon Community Welfare Center in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, where she also held a roundtable with farmers, local government officials and field surveyors.

The census, which covers farmland acquired since 1996, got underway simultaneously across all 17 metropolitan cities and provinces, 227 cities, counties and districts, and 4,273 towns and villages nationwide on May 18. Surveyors are cross-referencing administrative records and aerial photographs to verify basic information and identify plots requiring deeper investigation.

Gyeonggi Province has deployed 425 surveyors — the most of any region in the country — and is examining roughly 150,000 parcels, or about 12 percent of the total national workload.

Alongside the census, the ministry is running a special farmland lease regularization period from May 18 through July 31.

Rural communities have long relied on verbal lease agreements, making it difficult to confirm who is actually cultivating a given plot and leaving tenants with limited legal protections.

Since the regularization period began, 16,797 leased parcels have been newly registered in the farmland registry — a 46 percent increase over the same period last year.

Written lease contracts through the Farmland Bank also rose 61 percent, from 6,861 last year to 11,068 this year. The ministry said the figures suggest that informal verbal arrangements are increasingly converting into official contracts.

The ministry is also preparing for in-depth investigations set to begin in August, running parallel to the ongoing basic survey.

The National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service and the city of Nonsan are conducting pilot in-depth surveys covering 1,167 and 400 farmland parcels, respectively. The ministry plans to analyze the results together with the Korea Rural Economic Institute and the Chungnam Research Institute to verify survey methods and procedures and establish guidelines for the full in-depth phase.

The Korea Rural Community Corporation will support drone photography across all of Gyeonggi Province and remote island and mountain areas starting in August. Drone footage offers higher resolution than conventional aerial or satellite imagery and will be used to detect unauthorized fallowing and illegal structures.

At Thursday's roundtable, Minister Song heard field opinions on farmland consolidation, economies of scale and the need to strengthen tenant protections, then observed demonstrations of in-depth and drone surveys conducted on nearby farmland.

"I will personally stay on top of how the census is progressing, communicate closely with people on the ground and provide hands-on support," Song said. "I hope this census becomes the turning point that stamps out farmland speculation and ensures farmland is used for the benefit of actual farmers."