Yeoju City Conducts '2nd Year Taste Evaluation' for Representative Rice Variety Development

Mayor Lee Chung-woo "Developing Yeoju's Representative Rice Variety... Leading the Future Rice Industry"
Accelerating Development of Yeoju's Representative Variety

On the 27th, Yeoju City in Gyeonggi Province announced on the 29th that it held a Yeoju rice variety replacement project taste evaluation meeting attended by about 70 people, including officials from the Rural Development Administration's Central Crop Division, Nonghyup representatives, agricultural organizations, related personnel, and the Women's Association Council.

On the 27th, Yeoju City held a taste evaluation meeting for the Yeoju rice variety replacement project, attended by about 70 people including the Rural Development Administration's Central Crop Division, officials from Nonghyup, agricultural organizations, related personnel, and the Women's Association Council. Photo by Yeoju City

This evaluation meeting was conducted for the second year this year, following last year, as part of a business agreement for the development of representative rice varieties in the Yeoju area signed in 2023 by related organizations such as the National Institute of Crop Science, Gyeonggi-do Agricultural Research and Extension Services, Yeoju City, and the Nonghyup Yeoju Branch.

The samples used for the taste evaluation were selected from rice harvested and cultivated using Yeoju City's conventional farming methods, choosing candidate lines with excellent agricultural traits and inherent disaster resistance, as well as superior taste. During the evaluation process, producers and consumers including local consumers, agricultural organizations, and Nonghyup participated in a blind taste test comparing the taste of the foreign variety Chucheong, followed by a survey.

Mayor Lee Chung-woo of Yeoju stated, “We will lead the future rice industry by developing Yeoju's representative rice varieties based on scientific data.”

Kim Young-shin, head of the Crop Research Team, said, “Through today's evaluation meeting, we will strive to cultivate varieties with superior characteristics compared to existing conventional varieties.” Additionally, Jeon Chang-hyun, director of the Technology Extension Division, said, “Based on today's results, we will do our best to develop representative rice varieties unique to the Yeoju area.”

Meanwhile, the Yeoju rice variety replacement project plans to expand test cultivation sites within the Yeoju area by 2025 based on the results of this evaluation meeting.