Icheon City Selects Choi Dong-seok as Master of King’s Icheon Rice

Preliminary Contest Held at Icheon Rice Culture Festival

On the 18th, Icheon City in Gyeonggi Province announced that it held an award ceremony for selecting the master of "King's Mark Icheon Rice" at the "King's Mark Icheon Rice Master Selection Contest," held on the 17th as part of the "Icheon Rice Culture Festival." Farmer Choi Dong-seok from Bubal-eup was selected as the master.

Kim Kyung-hee (right), Mayor of Icheon City, is presenting a plaque to Choi Dong-seok, an agricultural expert selected as a master in the 'King's Icheon Rice Master Selection Contest.'
[Photo by Icheon City]

The contest, held at the Icheon Rice Culture Festival venue in the Icheon Agricultural Theme Park, determined the winners through a first round of field evaluation of rice cultivation and a second round of rice quality and texture analysis. Gold prize was awarded to Son Jong-bok (Janghowon-eup), silver prize to Shin Hwa-cheol (Seolseong-myeon), and bronze prizes to Yoon Seung-young (Moga-myeon) and Kim Hak-gil (Sindun-myeon), respectively.

Started in 2022, this contest is co-hosted by the city and the Icheon branch of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, and organized by the Icheon Agricultural Technology Center. It is conducted targeting farmers cultivating "Alchanmi" rice to enhance the pride of farmers producing high-quality rice and to promote the "King's Mark Icheon Rice" brand.

"Alchanmi," developed through collaboration between the city and the Rural Development Administration, is a variety selected as one of the highest quality rice strains by the Rural Development Administration along with "Haedeul." This year, it also received the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Award at the Korea Excellent Variety Awards.

Park Jong-in, head of the Technology Extension Division at the Icheon Agricultural Technology Center, said, "We hope this contest will serve as an opportunity to boost the pride of farmers striving to produce the highest quality rice."

Meanwhile, the Icheon Rice Culture Festival, which opened on the 16th, will be held at the Icheon Agricultural Theme Park until the 20th.