Yeoncheon-gun to Recover Improperly Paid Public Interest Direct Payments

Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi Province announced on the 27th that it will carry out the recovery of improper payments of public interest direct payments between 2020 and 2023.

Yeoncheon County Office building. Provided by Yeoncheon County.

The recovery targets include a total of 31 people and 21 million KRW, with improper payments due to main occupation requirements amounting to 4 million KRW for 3 people, and improper payments for excluded areas of farmland conversion amounting to 17 million KRW for 28 people.

During the implementation of the rice direct payment system (2008?2009), social issues arose from hobby or part-time farmers living in urban areas receiving direct payments while having certain incomes. As a result, the system was improved so that urban residents must meet the requirement of being 'persons whose main occupation is agriculture.'

Urban residents must cultivate farmland of 10,000㎡ or more located within the same city, county, or district, or have an annual agricultural product sales amount of 9 million KRW or more, or have resided for more than one year prior to the year of application in the relevant city, county, or district and have cultivated farmland of 1,000㎡ or more located in the same city, county, or district for more than one year.

Also, according to Articles 8 and 9 of the Act on Public Interest Direct Payments for Agriculture and Rural Areas, the basic direct payment is made if the farmland and the recipient meet the eligibility requirements, and the qualification must be maintained on the eligible farmland until September 30 of the relevant year.

However, even if the applicant meets the eligibility and applies, farmland that has received farmland conversion permission or farmland conversion notification under Articles 34, 35, or 43 of the Farmland Act, or farmland that has undergone consultation, is excluded from payment. Therefore, farmers should be careful not to make mistaken applications.

In particular, many farmers mistakenly believe that even if they have filed a farmland conversion notification for purposes other than farming, they can apply for direct payments until just before construction begins, as construction often starts one or two years after the notification, not immediately after. This leads to frequent mistaken applications.

The basic public interest direct payment is a subsidy paid to promote the public functions of agriculture and rural areas and stabilize farmers' income. Eligible recipients are farmers who meet the farmland requirements and actually cultivate the farmland. However, farmland excluded from direct payment includes farmland that has undergone farmland conversion permission, notification, or consultation, and 11 other items including areas where the 'shape and function of the farmland' are not maintained.

Farmers must carefully review the continuously revised implementation guidelines, public interest direct payment education, application guides provided by each eup/myeon, issuance of registration certificates, and notices to avoid mistaken applications. In particular, if there are any changes in the parcel such as crop type, area, lease contracts, ownership changes, or changes in the applicant’s address or management entity status, they must immediately report to the relevant eup/myeon to update the farmland ledger. After updating the farmland ledger, they must promptly complete the management entity change report with the Agricultural Products Quality Management Service and then sequentially apply for changes to the direct payment.

A Yeoncheon-gun official stated, “To prevent recurrence of similar cases in the future, we will send guidance documents specifying the eligibility requirements for farmers and farmland when issuing registration certificates to prevent cases of improper receipt including mistaken applications.”