CHUNGJU — Jang Dong-hyuk, leader of the People Power Party, criticized the Lee Jae-myung administration's blanket survey of farmland on the 30th, saying the government is "fixated on it to an extent that is impossible to understand" and asking whether it has "some other purpose." He said that if farmland prices fall after the survey, the drop could open the door to a hunt for cheap farmland.
Jang made the remarks at a meeting with farm group officials in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, saying, "The stated justification is to find speculators, but who would come all the way out here to buy farmland for speculation?"
"If the goal is to block speculation, the government could identify areas where land prices are rising and crack down there instead of surveying every plot of farmland in the country," he said. "Why is this government fixated on a blanket farmland survey?" On President Lee Jae-myung's reference the previous day to installing solar panels on farmland, Jang said, "We need to consider whether that is something that requires a blanket farmland survey."
Jang argued that if the survey drives farmland prices lower, farmers' loan burdens will grow and farmland could be sold at knockdown prices. "If you impose enforcement fines on land, owners have no choice but to put it up for sale," he said. "If the government builds a data set covering all farmland in the country, including which plots are subject to enforcement fines, a farmland hunt becomes possible." He added, "Even if there is no such intent now, once that data falls into someone's hands, speculative hunting of all farmland in the country becomes possible. We could lose control over our farmland and see our food security shaken as well."
Farm representatives urged the government to take rural realities into account, including an aging population and long-standing informal leasing arrangements.
Lim Yi-ja, chair of the People Power Party's policy committee, said, "This farmland survey pushed ahead with inspections and disposal orders without examining rural realities, the farmland elderly farmers inherit, or the circumstances that gave rise to customary leasing." She added, "Speculation has to be blocked, but people who actually farm should be able to use farmland with stability," and said the party would closely review measures including the criteria for distinguishing speculation from non-cultivation and an expansion of the farmland bank's purchase-and-lease function.
Before the meeting, Jang, Lim and other People Power Party leaders visited a blanket farmland survey site in Yongdu-dong, Chungju, to hear about difficulties on the ground. Farmers said they are too old to farm themselves and cannot find buyers even when they try to sell, leaving them worried about pressure to dispose of their land under the survey. One farmer said, "Even if I want to sell my farmland, there is no one to buy it, and the farmland bank does not buy it right away. Being old is not a crime, is it?"
After touring the site with the farmers, Jang said, "There is nothing left over even after farming, and now the government is doing this, so people are worried."
