According to political sources on the 17th, members of the Democratic Party of Korea on the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee held a closed-door meeting the previous day and called on the government to prepare supplementary measures, including protection for tenant farmers, as follow-up steps to the farmland survey.
In the basic farmland survey completed in July this year, 2.84 million lots — 27% of the total — were classified as suspected of violations such as illegal leasing and unauthorized fallowing, fueling anxiety over forced disposal among tenant farmers as well as owners who leased out farmland due to old age, illness or inheritance.
The Democratic Party is reviewing a plan to guarantee the cultivation rights of tenant farmers who actually farm for three years, even if forced disposal procedures against owners in violation of the law proceed. Under the plan, disposal orders against landowners would be deferred for three years, the minimum lease term under the Farmland Act. It is a safeguard to prevent tenant farmers from losing livelihoods they have long built up because of an owner's illegal conduct.
The party is also pursuing a plan to legalize the status of landowners, allowing them to resolve illegal conditions if they meet certain requirements. Democratic Party committee members and Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Song Mi-ryung plan to hold a party-government consultation on the 21st for an interim review of the farmland survey and to flesh out follow-up measures such as tenant farmer protection.
