Naju-si, All-Out Effort to Prevent Crop Cold Damage

[Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Han-hyuk Lee] Naju City, Jeollanam-do, is focusing its administrative efforts on establishing fundamental measures to prevent recurring cold damage to crops.

The city announced on the 18th that Mayor Kang In-gyu visited the National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science's pear research center, the test fields in Seji-myeon, and Bonghwang farms on the 17th to inspect the status of the cold damage prevention system and countermeasure establishment.

Furthermore, due to rapid climate change, abnormal low temperatures in spring have repeatedly caused damage to crops, and crops affected by cold damage suffer from quality degradation as well as reduced yields, causing serious harm to farmers.

Fruit trees such as pear, peach, and persimmon urgently require countermeasures as abnormal low temperatures before and after the flowering period cause pistil death, resulting in poor fruit set and deformed fruits.

According to statistics from the Agricultural Technology Center, cold damage to crops occurred over the past three years on 1,809 hectares in 2018, 1,827 hectares in 2019, and 1,959 hectares last year.

The city operates test fields linked with the pear research center and fruit cultivation farms to establish fundamental solutions for the annually recurring and increasingly widespread cold damage prevention.

At these sites, the effectiveness of cold damage prevention due to delayed flowering is being verified through trials using shading nets, black films, and operation of heating blowers.

Additionally, for Naju pear cultivation farms, which suffer greater damage compared to other crops, the city supports wind fans and micro-sprinkler devices, and in cooperation with the Naju Pear Horticultural Cooperative, is concurrently promoting the distribution of domestically developed new varieties that are resistant to cold damage due to late flowering.

Mayor Kang In-gyu stated, “In addition to supporting damage prevention facilities and distributing new varieties, we will explore all means and methods to minimize damage to crops including Naju pears,” adding, “Given the serious abnormal low temperature damage over the past three years, thorough prior preparation by farmers is necessary.”

Meanwhile, to prevent spring crop cold damage in advance, fruit orchards should prepare sufficient water supply for spraying within the orchard and inspect equipment for ventilation in advance.

For open-field crops such as chili peppers and potatoes, attention should be paid to thermal management using non-woven fabric or plastic film, and late planting after the last frost is recommended.

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