Haenam-gun Takes Steps to Phase Out Japanese Rice Varieties

Promotion of Zero Cultivation of Japanese-Origin Varieties by 2025

Haenam County Office Building View (Photo by Haenam County)

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Seo Young-seo] Haenam-gun, Jeollanam-do (Governor Myeong Hyun-gwan) announced on the 8th that it will actively promote the de-Japanization of the agricultural sector and conduct a pilot project to select domestically developed superior rice varieties to replace Japanese rice varieties in collaboration with the Rural Development Administration and Okcheon Nonghyup.

This project aims to select the optimal varieties suited to local conditions and cultivate Haenam’s premium rice as a regionally specialized top-quality product.

Through this project, the county will conduct a two-year pilot cultivation of four superior rice varieties?Saebonghwang, Cheongpum, Yechan, and Sugwang?bred by the National Institute of Crop Science under the Rural Development Administration, over 20 hectares in the Okcheon-myeon area.

The pilot cultivation will establish comparative exhibition plots for each variety to investigate growth conditions, pest and disease occurrences, and select regionally specialized superior varieties. Subsequently, evaluations by cultivating farmers and consumer response surveys will be conducted to finally select the variety with the best taste.

Haenam-gun plans to achieve zero cultivation area of Japanese varieties by 2025, expanding the cultivation area of domestically developed high-quality superior varieties to enhance the quality competitiveness of Haenam rice.

As of last year, Japanese rice varieties such as Hitomebore and Koshihikari are cultivated on 1,800 hectares in Haenam-gun, accounting for 10% of the total cultivation area.

Kim Ki-su, director of the Agricultural Technology Center, stated, “Japanese rice varieties are vulnerable to pests, diseases, and lodging, making them susceptible to disasters such as typhoons, and it is difficult to secure high-purity superior seeds. As domestically developed varieties that taste better than Japanese varieties are steadily being developed, we will lead the de-Japanization of agriculture by achieving zero cultivation area of Japanese varieties in Haenam, the largest rice cultivation area in the country.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.