[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Dong-wook] In Uljin-gun, Gyeongbuk, which is focusing on spreading 'smart farms' that integrate information and communication technology with agricultural products, the representative fruit, strawberries, have begun to be shipped.
On the 31st, according to Uljin-gun (Governor Jeon Chan-geol), the returning farmer Lee Man-young, who operates a smart farm (1320㎡), has been shipping about 15kg of strawberries to markets such as Uljin Hanaro Mart every two days since the 24th. The average price is 15,000 KRW per 500g box.
Strawberries require a lot of care during seedling cultivation because they must be planted with flower buds differentiated and managed well in terms of temperature and moisture to harvest at the right time without disease. Early low-temperature management to advance the flower bud differentiation period leads to faster strawberry production, which is advantageous in terms of sales price.
The Uljin-gun Agricultural Technology Center has focused on securing the production base and improving quality by providing education and on-site consulting from strawberry seedling cultivation and supporting the installation of early-flowering strawberry seedling facilities. In the case of Lee Man-young's farm, by acquiring new technology information through the Agricultural Technology Center, they achieved early shipment more than 20 days ahead with an expanded variety compared to last year.
Jeon Eun-woo, director of the Agricultural Technology Center, pledged, "Through proactive agricultural technology dissemination and technical guidance for precise environmental management, we will do our best to achieve early harvest of high-quality strawberries with high sugar content and to improve farmers' income."
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