RDA Establishes 'Bio Food Tech Team'... Dedicated to Green Bio and Food Tech Sectors

Organizational Restructuring Focuses on
"Industrializing Agriculture as a Future Growth Sector"

The Rural Development Administration (RDA) announced on the 25th that it has carried out an organizational restructuring to expand functions in future growth sectors such as smart agriculture, green bio, and food tech, including the establishment of a new 'Bio Food Tech Team.'

An RDA official explained, "This organizational restructuring was promoted with the purpose of strengthening functions and efficiently allocating personnel without increasing the total number of organizations and staff, supporting the creation of tangible results for the public. We focused on industrializing agriculture as a future growth industry, promptly solving field problems and public livelihood issues, and faithfully fulfilling the nation's fundamental missions."

First, the RDA plans to lead technological innovation in agriculture through advanced technology convergence by establishing the Bio Food Tech Team at the headquarters, which will be responsible for overall planning, coordination, and operation of research and development in the green bio and food tech fields, alongside the existing Smart Agriculture Team.

Additionally, the Department of Agricultural Food Resources at the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences will be expanded and reorganized into the Department of Food Resource Development and transferred under the National Institute of Crop Science. Through the Department of Food Resource Development, food tech research will be strengthened by developing processing and utilization technologies for staple crops such as rice, barley, and wheat, which are the main ingredients of staple foods, and by discovering future food materials. The research organization related to microbial materials and natural products in the Department of Agricultural Life Resources at the Agricultural Sciences Institute will be transferred to the Department of Agricultural Biology, unifying green bio research functions along with existing research on microbes and insects, and actively promoting research by material type.

Along with this, the research department within the Department of Agricultural Life Resources at the Agricultural Sciences Institute will be reorganized into the Digital Breeding Support Division, and a Supercomputing Center will be newly established to strengthen digital breeding research. An Agricultural Robotics Division will also be newly established within the Department of Agricultural Engineering to respond to future smart agriculture technology demands such as big data and artificial intelligence utilization and agricultural work robotization, alongside the existing Smart Farm Development Division.

To promote mechanization of field agriculture in response to rural labor shortages, the RDA will regularize and expand personnel by converting a temporary research team at the Agricultural Sciences Institute into the Field Agriculture Machinery Division, and by regularizing a temporary research team at the Animal Science Institute into the Animal Welfare Division, reflecting social demands such as the increase in companion animal populations.

The RDA also established the Northern Horticultural Testing Station at the National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science to actively respond to the intensifying climate crisis, including abnormal weather and the spread of pests and diseases. Furthermore, to strengthen research on strategic crops such as soybeans and wheat, which have high consumption but low self-sufficiency rates, the RDA regularized a temporary research team at the Institute of Crop Science into the Cereal Crops Division, thereby enhancing research functions for field crop development.

Kwon Jae-han, Administrator of the RDA, stated, "This organizational restructuring was promoted with a focus on overcoming the realistic crises of worsening climate change and rural aging through advanced technology convergence and activation of public-private cooperation. We will establish a competitive organization and functions to lead technological innovation in agriculture, solve current challenges, and create results that the public can feel."

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