The purpose of this study is to propose a way to secure and utilize farmland for vitalizing urban agriculture. Analyses of the change in farmland of the metropolitan area showed continuous loss of the farmland. To promote the urban agriculture and maintain the urban farmland, it is needed to set up the institutional mechanism and to provide incentives which encourage farmers to continue the farming activity.
This study suggests following institutional improvements for urban farmland conservation. First, It is necessary to establish ‘urban agriculture district’ inside the metropolitan area and to accept the urban farmland as urban planning facilities. Second, it is necessary to limit strictly the conversion of fertile farmland and to strengthen restitution of development gains in the farmland preservation charge. Third suggestion is to establish the urban agriculture farm and to reform the system to enable lease and loan of the farmland in the private urban agriculture farm. Fourth, inside the Greenbelt area, it is necessary to restrain strictly farmland reduction and to block thoroughly farmland damage caused by the illegal activity. Fifth, it is necessary to expand the condition of reduction and exemption for capital gains tax on urban farmland, also enforce the transfer of development right(TDR) to strengthen the loss compensation according to farmland regulation. Sixth, it is necessary to ease the regulation on scale of the farmland registration document to enhance urban farmland management(from 1,000㎡ to 660㎡). Seventh, it is required to investigate the possible area for urban agriculture and to make database, and for the practical use of urban farmland, ‘landshare’ method is recommended. Lastly, the systematic cooperation and division of roles among the central government, local government and the civil society, should be established.