[New Year's Message] Rural Development Administration Chief: "Crisis is Opportunity... We Must Overcome COVID-19, African Swine Fever, and AI"

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] Heo Tae-woong, Administrator of the Rural Development Administration, stated on the 31st that threats facing the rural industry, including the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), African Swine Fever (ASF), and Avian Influenza (AI), must be turned into opportunities.

In his New Year's address released on the 31st, Administrator Heo said, "Our agriculture and rural areas are facing challenges not only from the global spread of COVID-19 but also from aging and climate change," adding, "It is time to unite with one heart and mind to gather wisdom and overcome these challenges and threats by turning them into new opportunities."

He emphasized, "We will strive to develop digital agricultural technologies and nurture elite young farmers for the future and growth of agriculture." In particular, to develop and disseminate digital innovation technologies utilizing big data, efforts will be made to strengthen data collection at agricultural sites using the Internet of Things (IoT), and comprehensive technical support will be provided to young farmers.

Administrator Heo continued, "We will develop innovative agricultural technologies to improve food self-sufficiency and spread them to the field," emphasizing, "To expand demand-tailored domestic varieties, we will cultivate competitive new varieties and strengthen the acquisition of useful genetic resources to be used as breeding materials for new varieties through strategic cooperation with international organizations."

Customized technology development and dissemination will also be promoted as key tasks next year. He explained, "To develop demand-centered technologies that solve current issues, we will conduct in-depth analysis of safety accident cases through surveys on occupational hazards among farmers and promote the development of field-oriented agricultural work safety and convenience technologies based on living labs," adding, "To expand agricultural product exports through field-centered cultivation of export items, we will strengthen overseas marketability evaluations of promising export items and develop integrated technologies to maintain the quality of fresh agricultural products."

Furthermore, to spread domestic agricultural technologies overseas, he stated that they will participate in various new technology development projects and provide tailored development and dissemination of agricultural technologies through 22 overseas agricultural technology development centers (KOPIA) in different countries.