Minister visits North Gyeongsang Province office to encourage investigators; inherited land and customary leases to be exempt from disposal proceedings
![Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Song Mi-ryeong explains the follow-up measures and policy reform direction of the farmland survey to village heads and farmers at a field meeting held at the Hamyang-gun county office in South Gyeongsang Province on Wednesday. [Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/10/16/news-p.v1.20261014.33e7e7836cf741dbb0b16dfe83b9fdf6_P1.jpeg)
The government is pushing to ensure that farmland disposal proceedings are not initiated for violations uncovered during its ongoing farmland survey unless they involve clear speculation or serious illegal conversion. Authorities also plan to strengthen on-site guidance so that farmers are not left anxious over common infractions — such as inherited land or customary lease arrangements — that occur routinely in rural communities.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said Minister Song Mi-ryeong visited the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service's North Gyeongsang Province office on Friday to encourage civil servants and investigators handling the farmland survey and to review the progress of the probe.
The visit was arranged to accurately convey the ministry's recently announced "farmland survey follow-up measures and policy reform direction" to field staff, as the agency handles part of the nationwide farmland survey under way this year.
The government is pursuing the enactment of a special measures act that would prevent disposal proceedings from being initiated for general violations — those that do not constitute speculation or serious illegal conversion — identified through the survey. During the act's validity period, farmers who wish to do so would be given special provisions to bring their situations into legal compliance.
General violations to be excluded from disposal proceedings include ownership complications arising from inheritance and customary lease arrangements common in rural areas. Entrusting farmland to the farmland bank is also to be treated as optional rather than mandatory, meaning disposal proceedings will not be initiated solely because a farmer chose not to do so.
By contrast, farmland acquired for speculative purposes or subjected to serious illegal conversion will be handled separately. This includes acquiring farmland with a stated intent to farm it but then leaving it idle or leasing it out, obtaining farmland shares through false farming plans to profit from market price gains, and using agricultural corporations to generate real estate income. Installing non-agricultural facilities — such as campsites or open storage yards — that are restricted in designated agricultural promotion zones also falls under this category.
At the field meeting, participants shared cases in which neighbors farmed plots on behalf of elderly farmers, or cultivated land with complex ownership due to long-unresolved inheritance without a formal lease agreement. Cases were also raised in which farmers had installed agricultural facilities without knowing the required land-conversion procedures.
Participants said that, given these rural realities, a reasonable solution is needed to ensure that law-abiding farmers are not harmed.
"I want to express my gratitude to the agency's civil servants and investigators who have quietly carried out their duties despite this summer's heat waves and the difficult conditions in rural communities," Song said. She urged staff to clearly explain to farmers in the field that the follow-up measures and policy reform direction mean general cases not involving clear speculation will not result in disposal proceedings, so that farmers need not feel anxious during the survey process.
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