A bill that would allow fish farms and aquaculture facilities on farmland has been introduced, raising hopes among inland aquaculture operators that a long-standing grievance may finally be addressed.
Rep. Moon Geum-ju of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee, a member of the Democratic Party, said Monday she had introduced a partial amendment to the Farmland Act aimed at easing farmland regulations.
According to Moon's office, farmland policy has long recognized livestock facilities such as barns and insect-rearing houses as legitimate uses of agricultural land, allowing operators to set up such facilities without a separate land-use conversion process. Fish farms and aquaculture facilities, however — despite being easier to dismantle and restore to their original state — have been required to clear a cumbersome conversion process simply because they are classified as seafood production facilities.
That uneven regulatory burden has forced inland aquaculture operators to absorb excessive administrative costs and delays every time they try to establish a business. Persistent complaints have also emerged that they face relative disadvantages compared to the livestock and farming sectors in areas such as land transactions and obtaining business qualifications.
The proposed amendment addresses this imbalance by explicitly including fish farms, aquaculture facilities and other seafood production facilities in the legal definition of farmland use.
By establishing a legal framework under which aquaculture operators can submit a seafood facility management plan and obtain the necessary qualifications, the amendment is expected to let them set up operations and focus on their core business without going through a complex land-use conversion application.
In addition, a transitional provision gives operators who have already registered and are currently in business up to one year after the law takes effect to obtain their qualifications, minimizing disruption in the field.
"Imposing the double burden of farmland conversion on aquaculture facilities alone — even though they produce seafood on the same land used for other agricultural products — is an outdated regulation," Moon said. "In the face of a rural depopulation crisis, we must boldly remove the institutional barriers that are holding back growth on the ground."
abc@heraldcorp.com
