(Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Yoon-gu = The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on the 14th that it will significantly expand the scale of tailored farmland support for young farmers and others next year and will also overhaul the system. Public reserve farmland, which is leased to young farmers and others at low rental rates for long periods, will be expanded by about 70% from 2,500 hectares this year to 4,200 hectares next year. Also, the lease-then-sell program, which allows young farmers with insufficient initial capital to purchase farmland after leasing it for 10 to 30 years, will be expanded from 50 hectares this year to 200 hectares next year. This program allows applications throughout the year. To enable young farmers to engage in large-scale farming from the start of their business, the limitation on the scale of support based on farming experience will be abolished. Also, the support limit for leasing and other business types based on the scale of operation will be expanded by 0.5 to 1.0 hectares to help farmers scale up. A new method of purchasing large-scale (5 to 10 hectares) high-quality farmland and leasing it for rental sale will be introduced to enable young farmers to create startup towns. Next year, a pilot project (10 hectares in size) will be launched in Milyang City, Gyeongnam Province. Based on the project demand and results, plans are in place to expand it nationwide to enable young farmers to engage in scaled-up farming, such as smart farms, in consolidated farmland. Furthermore, a new system will be introduced to allow young farmers to consolidate farmland in their main farming areas by exchanging new leased farmland for existing leased farmland if the existing leased farmland is far from the main farming area. To promote joint farming, farmland leased from the farmland bank within government and local government joint farming districts will be leased to joint farming corporations first. The farmland exchange and consolidation program will also support the consolidation of scattered farmland of joint farming corporations. Yun Won-seop, Agricultural Policy Director of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said, "In the future, the scale of farmland support will be expanded to meet the growing demand for farmland from young farmers." ykim@yna.co.kr