South Korea’s comprehensive farmland survey will target speculative holdings and map ownership and use nationwide, rather than automatically forcing elderly farmers or others with legitimate reasons to sell or stop leasing land. Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryung said concerns that the survey would sharply depress farmland prices or freeze transactions were exaggerated relative to the data. The number of paddy and dry-field plots traded from January through July rose 2.2% from a year earlier, while prices remained weak but their decline recently narrowed. The government plans to distinguish speculative acquisitions from customary leasing and fallowing linked to inheritance, aging or other legitimate grounds. It will create a database for continuing oversight, tailor policies to regional use patterns, consolidate scattered plots and seek new uses for landlocked or underused parcels. The plan also includes a generational transition through the Farmland Bank, with public purchases, consignment leasing and farmland pensions for elderly farmers and land supplied to young and full-time farmers. The government plans amendments to broaden permitted grounds for leasing and fallowing, alongside temporary legislation to defer disposal orders and legalize existing violations. Earlier government and ruling-party measures said the Farmland Bank would acquire or manage land difficult for elderly farmers to cultivate and supply it to younger farmers. Existing officials said farmland prices had fallen 4.4%, less than the average annual 9% decline after the 2021 Korea Land and Housing Corporation farmland speculation scandal, while transactions increased 2.2%.