Haenam County Accelerates 82ha Future Agriculture Platform for the AI Era

Haenam County in South Jeolla Province is accelerating the development of a "Future Agriculture Innovation Platform" to respond to climate change and promote the transition to AI and smart agriculture, centered around the Agri-food Climate Change Response Center and the country's largest agricultural research complex.

According to Haenam County on March 31, a large-scale agricultural research complex is being established in the Samsan-myeon area, including the National Agri-food Climate Change Response Center and the Jeonnam Regional Specialized Fruit Support Center.

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The National Agri-food Climate Change Response Center, which will serve as the control tower for Korea's climate change response agricultural policy, is scheduled to begin construction in the second half of this year. The Jeollanam-do Regional Specialized Fruit Support Center, which will consolidate three test sites in Haenam, Wando, and Naju, is currently 47% complete and aims for completion within this year and operation next year.

The agricultural research complex, spanning 82 hectares, is garnering attention as a key hub for addressing the climate crisis and realizing sustainable future agriculture based on artificial intelligence (AI). The first zone has already completed and is operating the Sweet Potato Research Center, rental farms for young farmers, and scientific farming demonstration facilities, while the second zone will include rental smart farms and specialized vegetable seed production complexes.

In line with the operation of the research complex, the county has launched demonstration projects for the transition to AI smart agriculture in collaboration with major universities such as Seoul National University, Sunchon National University, and Chonnam National University, as well as research institutes and companies. This year’s major tasks include: ▲ mechanization of field crops such as a mechanical harvesting system for chili peppers, ▲ demonstration of new varieties such as blueberries to respond to climate warming, and ▲ building spatial information maps of greenhouse gases in paddy and field areas.

Collaboration with companies is also active. In partnership with related companies such as Daedong, the county is developing models that make agricultural management accessible to anyone using AI and robotics. In particular, the establishment of the "Agriculture AX (AI Transformation) Platform" is a core project for the county, with a phased approach that starts with building an integrated control system, advances through sweet potato precision agriculture demonstrations, and ultimately aims to expand open-field ICT convergence.

A Haenam County official stated, "As Korea is emerging as a hub for the national AI industry, with facilities such as the Samsung SDS Computing Center, the agricultural sector is also entering the AI era. The Samsan-myeon agricultural research complex will become an innovative platform that integrates research, on-site demonstration, and education in a one-stop system, leading the future of Korean agriculture."

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