Lee Seong-hee, NongHyup Chairman, Leads Promotion of 'Rare Rice Transplanting and Drone Pest Control' New Farming Methods

Seonghee Lee (center), President of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, is demonstrating rice planting using a semi-autonomous straight-driving rice transplanter.

NongHyup held a 'Sparse Rice Transplanting Agricultural Work Demonstration' on the 24th at the Yul-myeon NongHyup Seedling Center in Icheon-si, Gyeonggi Province, promoting a new farming method that can reduce labor and production costs.

At the event, about 300 people including Lee Seong-hee, Chairman of NongHyup Central Association, Song Seok-jun, member of the People Power Party, Cho Jae-ho, Administrator of the Rural Development Administration, and local farmers attended. They showcased sparse rice transplanting using a semi-autonomous straight-line rice transplanter and drone-based pest control methods, drawing significant attention.

According to research by the Rural Development Administration, when farmers transplant rice seedlings using a rice transplanter, they typically plant about 80 seedlings per pyong (approximately 3.3 square meters). However, by using sparse rice transplanting technology, this number decreases by about 30 seedlings. Additionally, the seeding density can be increased by sowing roughly twice the amount of rice seeds in seedling trays. The number of seedling trays required per hectare decreases from 240 to 80, reducing it to one-third, and the costs for seedling cultivation and transplanting are cut in half. When using drones for pest control, the time required per hectare decreases from 276 minutes to 12 minutes, enabling labor savings of up to approximately 95% compared to traditional methods.

Chairman Lee, who experienced the sparse rice transplanting and drone pest control demonstrations, stated, "In a situation where rural labor is decreasing and market liberalization is rapidly progressing, it is urgent to reduce the labor and production costs necessary for farming." He emphasized, "NongHyup will take the lead in enhancing the competitiveness of our agriculture by actively adopting new farming methods and smart agricultural machinery."

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