The government has increased next year's budget for rewards paid to people who report illegal farmland activity by more than 157 times this year's level, in a move critics call a wildly inflated estimate. Rewards have been paid fewer than seven times a year on average over the past five years, yet the new budget assumes 2,000 payouts.
According to data the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs submitted to the office of Rep. Kim Yong-tae of the People Power Party, the government has allocated 1.1 billion won for 2027 rewards covering reports of illegal farmland ownership, leasing and conversion, the lawmaker's office said on the 27th. The figure consists of 1 billion won in rewards plus 100 million won in operating costs. The same budget line held steady at 7 million won each year from 2022 through 2026 before jumping roughly 157-fold for next year.
The ministry sharply raised the allocation because it expects reward payments to reach 2,000 cases next year. It projects that a nationwide census of farmland will heighten awareness of violations and drive a steep increase in reports. Also factored in was a revision to the enforcement decree of the Farmland Act last month, which added illegal farmland leasing and free-of-charge use to the list of reportable violations and eased the requirements for paying rewards.
The government's projection of 2,000 cases, however, diverges sharply from past results. From 2021 through 2025, rewards were paid in a combined 33 cases, or an average of 6.6 a year. Total rewards over that period came to 27.1 million won, about 5.42 million won a year. Through September this year, payments amounted to 2.2 million won, or 31.4% of the full-year budget. At the current pace, the farmland reward budget is likely to go unspent again this year, as it did from 2021 to 2025.
"Raising a budget with no track record of payouts by 157 times is desk-bound administration that does not know the reality on the ground," Kim said. "With rural communities already walking on thin ice because of the sweeping farmland census, dangling huge rewards as bait to encourage neighbors to report one another will only destroy trust in rural communities."
