USDA ERS, South Korea's Agricultural Economy (1961)

i              .5 

Total 

'   2,218 

100.0 

1    4,973 

;   100.0 

Ministry  of  Agriculture  and  Forestry,  Republic  of  Korea 


Land  Tenure 


Since  the  passage  of  the  Land  Reform  Law  in  June  1949,  most  Korean 
farmers  have  become  owners  of  the  land  they  till.  The  law  provided  for 
government  purchase  of  specified  categories  of  land,  including  land  belonging 
to  nonfarmer  landlords.  Land  belonging  to  farmers  in  excess  of  3  chongbo 
(1  chongbo  equals  2.45  acres)  or  not  being  farmed  by  the  owner  was  also 
included.  The  law  provided  that  such  lands  were  to  be  sold  only  to  actual 
farmers,  with  priority  being  given  to  those  who  had  been  farming  the  same 
land  as  tenants.  The  maximum  area  to  be  sold  to  any  one  farmer  was  3 
chongbo. 

New  owners  were  to  pay  in  kind  for  the  land  they  received.  Each  farmer 
was  to  pay  in  five  annual  installments  a  total  of  150  percent  of  the  average 
annual  crop  raised  on  the  land.  Payments  started  with  the  1950  summer  grain 
harvest  and  were  originally  scheduled  to  be  completed  in  1955.  Total  collec- 
tions were  expected  to  reach  1,963,000  metric  tons  of  grains,  unmilled  rice 
equivalent.  However,  because  of  the  Korean  hostilities  and  other  difficul- 
ties, payments  extended  into  1958. 


Landowners  were  given  bonds  in  payment  for  the  land  purchased  from  them 
by  the  government  and  resold  to  the  tillers  of  the  land.  The  face  value  of 
the  land  bonds  was  stated  in  terms  of  the  value  of  the  unmilled  rice,  and  the 
bonds  were  to  be  paid  off  by  the  government  over  the  5-year  period  1950-54, 
in  equal  annual  installments.  The  amount  of  the  annual  cash  payment  was 
determined  by  official  rice  prices  fixed  yearly  by  the  government  and  approved 
by  the  National  Assembly.   (The  official  price  is  usually  somewhat  below  the 
free  market  price. )  Thus  the  amount  of  cash  due  each  bondholder  varied  in 
accordance  with  the  established  rice  price  of  the  applicable  year;  the  bonds 
carried  no  interest  and  no  adjustment  was  made  for  price  inflation  at  the 
time  of  payment. 

The  government's  annual  obligation  to  the  former  landowners  represented 
the  cash  value  (in  terms  of  official  prices)  of  approximately  214,000  metric 
tons  of  unmilled  rice.   In  actual  practice,  however,  the  former  landowners 
received  only  the  cash  equivalent  of  grains  which  the  government  actually 
collected  from  the  new  owners. 

The  program  was  administered  by  a  system  of  Agricultural  Land  Commissions 
composed  of  a  majority  of  private  citizens  and  a  few  government  officials. 
Under  the  land  reform  program,  over  1  million  acres  of  land  were  redistri- 
buted. About  three- fourths  of  this  area  consisted  of  paddy  land  and  the 
remainder  of  upland  fields.  This  was  23  percent  of  the  total  cultivated  area 
at  that  time.  About  1.5  million  families,  nearly  two-thirds  of  all  farm 
households,  bought  some  land  under  the  redistribution  program. 

Production  Practices 

In  South  Korea  there  is  a  minimum  expenditure  of  capital  in  the  form  of