With the Korean government emphasizing less rice production, output in 2018-19 is forecast to fall by 6.1%, to 3.73 million tonnes. Consequently, estimated rice planting area has been revised down 6.6% to 705,000 hectares, about 50,000 hectares less than the previous year. The reduced paddy lands were converted to soybeans (8,891 hectares), forage (13,576 hectares), and other various crops (10,384 hectares).