- The number of households returning to farming in South Korea increased in 2025.
- The increase in return-to-farming is driven mainly by older individuals and women, a trend partly supported by advances in mechanisation and automation.
- Only a small share of people moving to rural areas transition into farming, highlighting a disconnect between rural migration and actual engagement in agriculture.
New government data show the number of return-to-farming households rose 6 per cent year on year in 2025 to 8,735, while the total number of individuals increased 8.5 per cent to 11,617.
However, the average cultivated area per return-to-farming household stood at just 0.34 hectares, with 83.7 per cent of households farming less than 0.5 hectares.
This confirms that most new entrants are operating on a micro scale, limiting their capacity to contribute meaningfully to national production or drive efficiency gains.
Instead, many entrants are likely focused on subsistence farming or supplementary income generation, said the MAFRA report.
A growing proportion of new farmers are leasing rather than owning land, with fully leased farmland households rising steadily to 33.9 per cent in 2025.
This points to ongoing barriers to land access and ownership, which can constrain long-term investment, mechanisation decisions, and scaling potential.
Limited impact in farming
Crop choices among new entrants also reflect conservative, lower-risk strategies, with vegetables and paddy rice dominating production while fruit and specialty crops are less prevalent.
These patterns suggest that returnees are gravitating towards familiar, lower-capital activities rather than moving into higher-value or more technologically advanced agricultural segments.
At the same time, the rise in part-time farming further underscores the sector’s economic constraints.
Additionally, only a small fraction of people moving to rural areas are transitioning into farming.
The data showed that of the 2.22 million people who relocated to rural areas in the past five years, just 0.7 per cent began farming in 2025.
This highlights a gap between rural migration and agricultural engagement.
Older people and women return more
A growing share of return-to-farming households are combining agriculture with other employment, indicating that farming alone is often insufficient as a primary livelihood.
The increase in return-to-farming is being driven largely by older individuals, particularly those aged 70 and above, alongside a rising share of women.
MAFRA suggested that this trend is partly enabled by advances in mechanisation and automation.
“The increase in return-to-farming is highly meaningful, given the overall decline in the population and domestic migration. Going forward, we must not only promote the inflow of urban residents into agriculture and rural areas but also focus on creating conditions that enable return-to-farming and rural migrants to remain in rural communities,” said Yoon Won-seop, director-general for agricultural policy at MAFRA.
To address this, he said the authorities plan to expand access to information on rural jobs, vacant housing, and farmland, and deliver personalised support.
Overall population decline
Despite the increase in return-to-farming, the report shows a broader decline in rural migration and population movement, which fell by 2.6 per cent in 2025.
The report highlighted that people in their thirties formed the largest share of rural-migrant household heads, while those aged 30 and below consistently accounted for around 43 per cent of the total.
Despite the overall decline, these findings show that rural areas continue to attract younger residents, likely due to employment opportunities and housing considerations.
According to the report, motivations for moving to rural areas differed significantly by age group.
Younger individuals prioritise jobs, while older groups are more driven by housing factors such as affordability or quality of life.
Family-related reasons are steadily increasing across all groups, suggesting that lifestyle, caregiving, and family cohesion are becoming more important drivers of rural migration decisions.
Furthermore, the report showed that rural migration was highly concentrated in peri-urban and accessible regions, particularly around Gyeonggi Province.
Cities such as Hwaseong, Namyangju, and Yongin topped the list, indicating a preference for areas that balance rural living with proximity to urban centres.
Policy interventions also appear to have a measurable impact.
Regions selected for a rural basic income pilot programme recorded a substantial average increase of 37.8 per cent in incoming migrants, suggesting that financial incentives can effectively encourage relocation.
