South Chungcheong sweeps 3 categories at Smart Agriculture Innovation Competition
South Chungcheong Province has demonstrated its digital capabilities in agriculture on the national stage.
The South Chungcheong Agricultural Research and Extension Services announced Tuesday that it won a grand prize and two excellence awards at the Smart Agriculture Management Innovation Competition organized by the Rural Development Administration.
Held June 19 at the second-floor exhibition hall of OSCO in Osong, Cheongju, in conjunction with an agricultural technology fair, the competition was organized into three categories: smart management innovation case presentations, smart content video production, and agri-food live commerce.
The grand prize in the smart management innovation category went to Park Sang-young, head of Joeun Farm in Geumsan. Park presented a case study on how he shifted from soil-based perilla leaf cultivation to nutrient solution farming — a transition he described under the theme "Beyond the age of soil, riding clear currents: the green innovation of perilla leaves grown through hydroponics" — and detailed the income gains the change had generated.
In the smart content video production category, Im Hye-won, head of King Kong Farm in Asan, took an excellence award — first among five competing teams nationwide — for creating promotional content using a range of AI techniques to showcase "Geumseon," a new potato variety.
In the agri-food live commerce category, Nam Sun-rye and Gu Mi-sun of Cheongyeon Village, producers of lotus leaf processed goods, won an excellence award among seven national teams for effectively presenting their products through natural delivery and consumer-friendly hosting.
"We achieved the best results in the country at this competition by continuously strengthening farmers' digital capabilities through education and hands-on training," said Cho Suk-hee, a researcher at the South Chungcheong Agricultural Research and Extension Services. "We will continue to do our best to improve the ability to use new technologies so that farmers can respond to a rapidly changing environment."
kwonhl@heraldcorp.com
