Research Reports
Current Condition of abandoned or Idle Farm Land and Policy Direction
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AuthorPark, Seokdoo
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Publication Date2005.12.01
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Original
The purpose of the study is to propose the direction of policy on abandoned or idle farm land by analyzing the characteristics, the current condition and prediction of abandoned or idle farm land, and reasons why they exist. According to the annual crop growing survey, abandoned farm land is defined as the farm land not used more than a year for farming, while idle farm land is defined as the land left idle for more than two years, thus losing the form of farm land and the capability of growing crops. This research regards abandoned or idle farm land as research subject.
The acreage of abandoned or idle farm land in 2004 is estimated to be 200 thousand/ha, which is composed of 160 thousand/ha of the accumulated idle farm land from 1975 to 2004 and 40 thousand/ha of the abandoned farm land in 2004. This is equivalent to 11% of total cultivated acreage which is combined by the land owned by absentee (26%) and the land owned by residents(74%). About 20% of residing farms owns abandoned or idle farm land. Among them about 60% is farm owned abandoned farm land which is smaller than 1 thousand/pyong. In general, the reasons of having abandoned or idle farm land are ① insufficient labor, ② inappropriate land condition for cultivating, ③ lower profitability and lack of substitute crop, and ④ land devastation by natural disasters. More than the half of inappropriate land condition for cultivation is caused by the inability to use machinery in farming.
The examination focuses on the location of abandoned or idle farm land, farming condition and ownership for Suha 1-ri, Seosuk-myun, Hongcheon-gun, Kangwon-do. The acreage of abandoned or idle farm land in Suha 1-ri is 21.7/ha, among them 79.4% is paddy field and 20.6% is upland, that covers 11.2% of total land. According to the residence of owners, the ownership by absentee is 19.7% that is much lower than the one for general land, 42.6%. The land transaction of abandoned or idle farm land is less active than the case of general land. The abandoned or idle farm land in Suha 1-ri is located at very remote valley. Because of the low accessability, it got abandoned in the beginning and even now when lots of people from other regions move to the region, the abandoned or idle farm land is not attractive as the target of speculative investment. It is barely happened to reuse the abandoned or idle farm land.
The current government programs and systems regarding abandoned or idle farm land are the designation of cultivation by proxy from ?Agricultural Land Act?, the coordination of marginal farm land, rice production control, rice income compensation direct payment, field farming direct payment for unfavorable land from ?Agriculture and Fishery Community Improvement Act?. However, these programs and policies are not effective in terms of preventing abandoned or idle farm land and thus for the reuse of them.
It is enormous the acreage of cumulated abandoned or idle farm land. Most of the previous studies suggested a solution as finding the way of using it in either farming or non-farming purpose. However, only a small portion of it is able to reuse for other purposes. Moreover, the size of land used for farming is getting smaller and the occupancy rate of land is getting lower. It is expected that the farm size will be bigger, the number of big farmer will be greater and their farm land usage will be more. In other words, concentration of farm land for the small number of best practice farmers and the according land transmission of them will be more important than the increase or decrease of total cultivating land itself.
Four basic rules to choose the direction of policy are proposed in the study. They are ① cost minimization, ② indirect and comprehensive support, ③ priority for farm manager and business manger, and ④ no question on the purpose of usage. We also propose the following for the direction of the policy. First, it is unnecessary to have a separate policy only directed for abandoned or idle farm land either for preventing or reuse. Second, if it is necessary, the policy of abandoned or idle farm land should be designed based on regional policy not the farm land policy itself. Third, the last and the most important in the policy is that the local governments have authority to design and administrate the policy appropriate for the condition of the regions, and the central government support them.
Researchers: Seok-Doo Park, Soo-Suk Kim
E-mail address: sdpark@krei.re.kr
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