Samcheok City Holds Demonstration Harvest Event for New Sorghum Variety 'Goeunchal'

The Samcheok Agricultural Technology Center in Gangwon Province held a demonstration harvest event for 'Goeunchal,' a newly developed domestic sorghum variety, on the 26th in the Galjeon-ri area of Hajang-myeon, with about 20 participants including city officials, representatives from the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, and local farmers.

Samcheok Agricultural Technology Center held a harvest festival for 'Goeunchal,' a new domestic sorghum variety, on the 26th in the Galjeon-ri area of Hajang-myeon. Provided by Samcheok City

This demonstration event was organized to introduce alternative crops to labor-intensive farming in rural areas that are struggling with labor shortages due to an aging population, and to disseminate stable production technologies for high-quality field crops.

'Goeunchal' sorghum is a new variety that not only boasts excellent stickiness and taste, but is also highly resistant to lodging caused by rain and wind and has high yield potential, making it highly valuable for processing and commercialization. In particular, it is considered well-suited for responding to climate change, and is evaluated as having strong potential as a regional specialty crop.

To promote the spread of such new varieties, the city is implementing two projects, including the 'Regional Specialty Grain New Variety Raw Material Production Complex Pilot Project.' This year, a 14.2-hectare complex was established in the Hajang-myeon area to cultivate new field crop varieties such as sorghum (Goeunchal) and perilla (Deulsam). A total project budget of 210 million won (35 million won in national funds, 133 million won in city funds, and 42 million won in self-financing) was invested.

This project is being carried out in cooperation with the Rural Development Administration's National Institute of Crop Science, the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Agricultural Research and Extension Services, and the Samcheok Agricultural Technology Center to ensure a stable supply of raw grains for small-scale cultivated crops.

A city official stated, "With this demonstration harvest as a starting point, we will actively disseminate cultivation technologies for new field crop varieties to farms, and seek ways to link them to processing and commercialization in the future."

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