Paper documents and phone verification eliminated, cutting average processing time from 9 minutes 30 seconds to under 4 minutes; farm business registration changes also handled in one place to ease burden on elderly farmers

[Getty Images Bank]
[Getty Images Bank]

Farmers entrusting their land to the Agricultural Land Bank will no longer need to submit paper documents or verify their identity by mobile phone. A single signature will now be enough to file all required documents for a lease entrustment application, and changes to farm business registration can be handled at the same time and in the same place. Processing time will also be cut by more than half.

South Korea's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korea Rural Community Corporation announced the overhaul of the Agricultural Land Bank's lease entrustment application process, effective Wednesday.

Previously, farmers wishing to entrust land to the Agricultural Land Bank had to complete a mobile phone identity verification and submit seven types of documents through the public MyData service. They also had to separately obtain and submit a certified copy of the land registry, adding to the inconvenience.

Under the new system, all seven documents can be submitted with a single signature, with no mobile phone verification required. Agricultural Land Bank staff will access the land registry directly, so applicants no longer need to prepare any paper documents on their own.

The public MyData service electronically transfers personal information held by government and public institutions to a designated recipient at the individual's request.

The overhaul is also expected to ease the burden on elderly farmers who are less comfortable with digital devices. More than four in 10 Agricultural Land Bank users are in their 60s or older. Older applicants can visit a local Agricultural Land Bank branch with only their ID card to complete the process.

The time needed to submit documents and complete contracts has also been significantly reduced. By updating the system to automatically populate application forms with submitted information, average processing time has been cut from around 9 minutes 30 seconds to under 4 minutes. Wait times at service counters are also expected to shorten as a result.

The process for updating farm business registration — which previously had to be handled separately after signing a lease entrustment contract — will also be streamlined.

Until now, farmers who wanted to update their farm business registration after entrusting land to the Agricultural Land Bank had to visit or call a local office of the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service. Going forward, they can request the registration update at the same time as the lease entrustment application, eliminating the need to contact or visit the agency separately.

However, new farm business registrations are not covered by this round of improvements. Those applying for a new registration must still visit the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service in person, as before.

Yun Won-seup, agricultural policy director at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said the overhaul reflected feedback gathered during farmland investigations. "We heard from the field that the lease entrustment process was inconvenient, so we reduced the paperwork and consolidated the procedures in one place," he said. "We will continue to listen to voices from the field and work consistently to make the farmland lease system more accessible."

Lee Jeong-mun, head of farmland management at the Korea Rural Community Corporation, said the changes were the result of improving the Agricultural Land Bank's lease entrustment system to meet public expectations. "We will continue to communicate with the field first and provide a trustworthy Agricultural Land Bank service," he said.


adastra@heraldcorp.com