Employees of LH (Korea Land and Housing Corporation) who were not farmers purchased farmland by exploiting inside information and taking out illegal loans; they further engaged in speculative practices such as splitting ownership shares and planting s...
Employees of LH (Korea Land and Housing Corporation) who were not farmers purchased farmland by exploiting inside information and taking out illegal loans; they further engaged in speculative practices such as splitting ownership shares and planting seedlings to claim compensation. To eradicate such speculation, the Farmland Act was urgently amended in 2021, but this led to excessively strict regulations on farmland acquisition and ownership. As a result, farmland transactions and prices have plunged, making it difficult for farmers to exercise their property rights and creating a need for improvement, which motivated this research.
This study first re-evaluates the principle of “farming by those who cultivate” (gyeongja-yujeon, the fundamental concept of Korea’s Farmland Act) and reviews farmland ownership and use/income-related legal systems in Japan, Germany, and the United States. It then analyzes the actual state of farmland transactions before and after the 2021 amendment. Based on prior studies, it establishes a research model in which perceptions of the amended Farmland Act affect perceptions of changes in farmland transaction volume and prices, with intentions to buy or sell farmland acting as a mediating variable.
A survey was conducted with 550 respondents nationwide—comprising 110 full-time farmers, 110 part-time farmers, 110 weekend/hobby farming people, 110 individuals planning to return to farming within five years, and 110 members of the general public. Multiple regression analysis was performed using SPSS. Among the six independent factors, statistically significant results were found for perceptions of the farmland ledger and the farmland acquisition qualification review. These findings suggest directions for future amendments to the Farmland Act.
The implications of this study are as follows;
First, Korea`s rice consumption continues to decline and rice remains, so the target for reducing the rice cultivation area this year is 80,000 hectares. Therefore, laws regulating farmland ownership by non-farmers lead to a contraction in farmland transactions.
Second, it is appropriate to minimize the contents of the farmland ledger and to delete it as an application for change of the farmland ladger, especially if there is a change in the farmland status.
Third, it would be desirable to ease the agricultural management plan to the level before the 2021 revision of the items stated in the agricultural management plan submitted at the time of the farmland acquisition qualification review.
Forth, as an attempt to introduce a behavioral economic approach to legal research, it is of academic significance in that it presents a new analysis framework for farmland policy research.