The South Korean government has budgeted more than 157 times as much for rewards to people who report illegal farmland use next year as it did this year, a move critics call out of touch with conditions in farming communities. Payouts have averaged fewer than seven a year over the past five years, yet next year's budget assumes 2,000 payments. The government has also said it will defer penalties for minor violations found in a nationwide farmland audit, and confusion in the field is expected to continue.
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 on the 28th, the government has set aside 1.1 billion won for 2027 rewards for reports of illegal farmland ownership, leasing and conversion. The total consists of 1 billion won in rewards plus 100 million won in operating costs. The budget had held steady at 7 million won a year from 2022 through 2026 before jumping roughly 157-fold for next year.
The ministry sharply raised the budget on the assumption that 2,000 rewards will be paid next year. It projected that the nationwide farmland audit would heighten awareness of illegal activity and sharply increase reports. The increase also reflects a revision to the enforcement decree of the Farmland Act last month, which added reports of illegal farmland leasing and rent-free use to the list of activities eligible for rewards and eased the requirements for payment. Previously, rewards were paid only after judicial action such as indictment by a prosecutor, but they will now also be paid when an administrative action, such as a disposal order, becomes final. The annual cap per person was also raised to 15 million won from 1.5 million won.
The problem is that the government's projection diverges sharply from past payout records. From 2021 through 2025, a total of 33 rewards were paid, or an average of 6.6 a year. Next year's figure would be more than 300 times that level. Total rewards paid over the same period came to 27.1 million won, or about 5.42 million won a year. Through September this year, payouts totaled 2.2 million won, or 31.4% of the budget. At the current pace, the farmland reward budget is likely to go unspent this year, as it did from 2021 through 2025.
The expanded rewards also risk colliding head-on with the government's pledge to defer penalties as a follow-up to the farmland audit. Rewards for reporting illegal farmland use are paid once an administrative action such as a disposal order becomes final, yet the government has said it will give violators a chance to correct customary and minor breaches on their own and defer penalties. Critics say a mismatch between the two policies is unavoidable, with the government sharply expanding a reward program premised on administrative action while pledging to keep such action to a minimum.
"Increasing a budget 157-fold when there is no record of payouts is desk-bound administration by people who do not understand reality," Kim said. "At a time when rural communities are walking on thin ice because of the sweeping farmland audit, dangling enormous rewards to encourage neighbors to report one another will produce the devastating result of destroying nothing but trust in rural communities."
