Jeonbuk Provincial Agricultural Research Institute Expands Supply of Customized 'High-Quality Strawberry Seedlings' for Farmers

Promotion of City and County Consultative Meetings for Improvement of Production and Distribution Systems... Diversification of Varieties

The Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province Agricultural Research and Extension Services (Director Choi Jun-yeol) held a council meeting on the 21st with public officials from 14 cities and counties in the province to improve the production and distribution system of high-quality strawberry seedlings.

According to the province on the 23rd, the strawberry cultivation area in the province was 464 hectares as of 2022, mainly cultivated in Wanju-gun (201ha), Iksan-si (81.8ha), and Namwon-si (65.6ha). It is recognized as a high-income crop, and the preference for cultivation has been increasing.

On the 21st, the Jeonbuk Provincial Agricultural Research and Extension Services held a meeting to improve the strawberry seedling production and distribution system.
[Photo by Jeonbuk Provincial Government]

The Agricultural Research and Extension Services distribute about 30,000 plants annually. To resolve farmers' difficulties due to the absence of a high-quality strawberry seedling distribution system, they established a foundation for the propagation and distribution of high-quality strawberry seedlings and have been producing tissue culture-derived original strawberry mother plants since 2021.

However, the number of farmers wanting to supply original mother plants is increasing, while the quantity available for distribution is limited. Due to diversification of strawberry cultivation varieties, the demand for high-quality mother plants for export and new summer strawberry varieties has also increased.

At this council meeting, it was decided to expand the distribution scale by having the city and county agricultural technology centers operate the propagation of original mother plants, which was previously promoted by the province.

The province agreed to diversify tissue culture strawberry varieties with high farmer demand and to enhance the efficiency of high-quality strawberry seedling production and distribution through role-sharing and cooperation between the province and cities/counties.

No Jae-jong, head of the Horticulture Division, said, "Based on the various opinions from this council meeting, we will first select key cities and counties to propagate and distribute original strawberry mother plants in the province. We will also specify the scale of pilot projects, seedling unit prices, and establish guidelines for quality control of distributed seedlings to ensure stable distribution of high-quality seedlings."