Sacheon-si Expands Smart Agriculture for Facility Horticulture and Fruit Farms

Full-Scale Promotion of Smart Farm Development in the Horticulture Sector

Sacheon City in Gyeongnam Province is expanding smart agriculture to create an optimal cultivation environment with minimal labor amid unpredictable climate change and a decreasing agricultural population.

According to the city on the 23rd, to reduce labor in fruit farming households (250ha) with many elderly farmers and mountain cultivation, a fruit aerial pest control support project was introduced as a new project in 2023. This is a pest control project using agricultural drones.

Until now, smart farm activation was limited mainly to facility horticulture farms, but this year it will be expanded to the fruit sector as well.

Gyeongnam Sacheon Agricultural Technology Center.

To this end, 557 million KRW was allocated in 2023 smart agriculture-related budgets for four projects, including the ICT convergence expansion project in the horticulture sector.

In addition, through the Korea South-East Power Rural Coexistence Cooperation Fund, a youth smart farm farmer cultivation project is underway. It aims to secure core agricultural manpower centered on youth and revitalize rural areas through virtuous cycle growth of farming households.

This project is a collaboration between Sacheon City, Korea South-East Power, and Gyeongsang National University, focusing on promoting specialized education related to smart farms and increasing smart farm utilization through sharing demonstration data.

Jung Dae-woong, head of the Agricultural Technology Center, said, “The spread of smart agriculture utilizing ICT, big data, and AI is essential to solve farming difficulties and establish a stable agricultural environment,” adding, “We will spare no support for discovering projects to revitalize agriculture in Sacheon City and cultivating young farmers.”

Meanwhile, the city plans to expand smart agriculture by applying ICT technology to various agricultural fields such as fruit sector smart farm expansion projects and greenhouse construction projects in 2024.