Haenam Premium Sweet Potatoes, Different from the Planting Stage

Sweet Potato Premium Seedling Production Pilot Project, Systematic Seedling Management Draws Attention

Haenam-gun is promoting a pilot project for producing high-quality seedlings to improve sweet potato quality, receiving great support from farmers. (Photo by Haenam-gun)

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Hyun] Haenam-gun, Jeollanam-do (County Governor Myeong Hyun-gwan) announced on the 25th that it is receiving great responses from farmers by promoting a pilot project for producing high-quality sweet potato seedlings to improve sweet potato quality.

This project involves soil disinfection in the seedling beds to prevent diseases and pests such as circular spot disease and nematodes, and disinfecting sweet potato slips before planting in the main field to produce high-quality seedlings.

The pilot project covers an area of 6 hectares and involves about 30 farms in the county. According to the mid-term evaluation held on the 17th, it was found that disease occurrence in the seedling beds was prevented in advance, and the effect of producing high-quality seedlings was very high.

Through systematic seedling management, soil-borne infectious diseases that had been widespread were reduced to below 20%, and the growth of sweet potato slips was vigorous, allowing the seedling harvesting interval to be 2 to 3 days faster than usual, which is expected to greatly reduce management costs and improve sweet potato quality.

Until now, the accumulation of soil salts and increased occurrence of pests and diseases due to continuous seedling cultivation have been pointed out as major factors lowering the quality of Haenam sweet potatoes by degrading the quality of sweet potato slips.

An official from Haenam-gun stated, “As a result of the pilot project, we received requests to expand the project to all farms in the county next year, gaining great support from farmers. We will strive to raise the quality of Haenam sweet potatoes to the next level by expanding the pilot project, distributing tissue-cultured seedlings, providing comprehensive quality management manuals, and strengthening comprehensive technical guidance for producing high-quality seedlings.”

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