Investing 386.7 Billion KRW by 2027 to Develop 'K-Farm' Smart Farm Model

[Asia Economy Reporter Seolgina Jo] A large-scale smart farm research and development project that introduces 4th industrial revolution technologies such as ICT and artificial intelligence (AI) into agriculture to increase productivity and reduce labor is being actively promoted.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 13th that the 'Smart Farm Research and Development Project Group Foundation' was launched together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Rural Development Administration. The project group will be responsible for managing and operating the 'Smart Farm Multi-Ministry Package Innovation Technology Development Project,' which will be promoted as a new project starting this year. A total of 386.7 billion KRW from both government funds and private investment is expected to be invested in this project by 2027.

Going forward, the project group will focus on supporting on-site demonstration and advancement of smart farms for data-driven productivity improvement, as well as the development of fully unmanned and automated smart farm convergence and core technologies. The project group secretariat, located in Sejong City, consists of a project planning office for overall project management and a project management office for applying research outcomes on-site. Professor Seongin Cho of the Department of Biosystems Engineering at Seoul National University was appointed as the head through a public recruitment process.

The launch of the Smart Farm Project Group is evaluated as enabling the promotion of smart farm research and development in a unified system. By integrating and investing in smart farm research and development, which had been individually conducted by various ministries, the project group aims to increase efficiency, and plans to continuously conduct demonstration research and commercialization of smart farm technologies by utilizing the infrastructure of the Smart Farm Innovation Valley and the Smart Livestock Pilot Complex promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, focusing on scalability, economic feasibility, and stability.

The Smart Farm Project Group plans to complete the planning of research tasks for smart farm technology development projects to be promoted this year by January and will open a call for research teams through a project announcement in early February.

An official from the Ministry of Science and ICT said, "With the launch of the project group, the challenge of the project goal to 'expand the global market entry of the K-Farm model through the development and dissemination of smart farm convergence and core technologies' will gain more momentum."

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