Smart, innovative agriculture expected to advance sustainable growth
來源: 開云體育app官方網站 時間: 2023-01-29 12:27:57
Farmers cultivating seed potatoes in Sunchang, North Jeolla Province. Courtesy of the Rural Development Administration
Rural Development Administration celebrates 60th anniversary
By Lee Kyung-min
The development of advanced agricultural business models powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and smart technologies will lead the innovative growth of the country's farmers, thereby transforming the traditionally labor-intensive industry into a high-tech, research- and capital-intensive growth driver, according to the Rural Development Administration (RDA), a state-run organization supervised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Monday.
The RDA is a state-run research institute affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
Damage to the environment will be minimized to drive an eco-friendly, sustainable growth model, whereby information on land, weather and other agricultural conditions will be updated and used to improve overall business efficiency to help with high-quality, maximum production output.
Each of the farmers will be provided with customized services to improve the quality and volume of their produce, as well as ways to create genetically engineered fruits and vegetables. The innovative products upon commercialization will increase the sales both in local and overseas markets.
They will learn how to limit waste in time, labor and production and management costs, mediated by the RDA-operated digital system in the process of making leaps recognized by their global peers.
AI-recommended places for optimal results
The RDA has developed an online program that farmers can use to collect information about the optimal locations to grow certain types of agricultural produce.
Available are detailed information on soil, related facilities and the number of livestock in around 1,900 prospective farming locations nationwide. Anyone can access the program using a computer or a smartphone.
According to a survey conducted by the RDA, users of the program saw their output increase up to 48.3 percent compared to those who did not.
The number of the program's users per month averaged 1,399 people, as of January.
Strawberries produced through the technologies of the Rural Development Administration. Courtesy of the Rural Development Administration
Strawberries
Few know that it has been less than 20 years since locally produced strawberry varieties have outnumbered imported ones.
Korea paid over 3 billion won ($2.3 million) in royalties overseas including to Japan for imported strawberries in 2005, when over 90 percent of strawberries were imported. Domestically produced strawberries accounted for only 9.2 percent of the market at the time.
The following year, the RDA mapped out a plan to develop and supply locally produced strawberries, pushing up the market share of Korea-produced strawberries to 61.1 percent in 2010. The figure has since spiked further to 96 percent last year.
According to a 2021 survey by the state-run organization of 300 farmers and 1,000 consumers, the localization of strawberries topped the list of successful agricultural initiatives over the past six decades.
Rice
The local consumption of rice, Korea's staple food made from a grain crop, is not as strong as it was about six decades ago, mostly because many young people are trying limit their carbohydrate intake to avoid weight gain amid a sedentary urban lifestyle.
However, the staple food not as popular lifted many out of hunger in the 1970s, led by the RDA's project to develop a locally produced grain crop, called Unification Rice. The high-yield rice plant helped Korea achieve national food self-sufficiency in 1977, about two decades after the Korean War in the early 1950s.
Korea produced 304 kilograms of rice per ten acres of land in 1960, but the figure soared to 494 kilograms in 1977.
A greenhouse farm in South Jeolla Province. Courtesy of the Rural Development Administration
The 'white revolution'
The work of the state-run RDA reached a milestone in the 1980s, defined as the "white revolution" period. White refers to the color of plastic greenhouses that enabled year-round production of fruit and vegetables, demand for which surged in line with changes in people's diets amid rapid economic growth and urbanization.
The Korean standard greenhouse technology was adopted thereafter by developing countries in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and South America.
Seed potatoes The overseas expansion of Korea's agricultural businesses accelerated in the 1990s, buoyed by the country's global competitiveness.
One example is locally produced seed potatoes, the outcome of years of RDA research to remove obstacles that made it difficult to mass-produce large seed potatoes uniform in size.
The technology for producing seed potatoes of superior quality using hydroponic cultivation ― a method of growing plants in water, not in the soil ― was adopted by North Korea and Algeria.
Transition to a high-value industry
The RDA plans to foster young farmers, backed by efforts to improve living conditions in rural areas and lifelong training and educational opportunities to help advance the industry as a high-value growth driver.
"We will develop high-tech equipment and facilities to combat the workforce shortage in rural areas, a gradual step towards transitioning to autonomous farming to increase productivity and business income," an RDA official said.
