Yeoncheon County Overcomes Fertilizer Supply Crisis and Accelerates Carbon Neutrality with 'Plasma Fertilizer'

The Yeoncheon County Agricultural Technology Center (Director: Lee Wonhee) is set to overcome the fertilizer supply crisis caused by international instability, including the Middle East war, through advanced nuclear fusion technology. At the same time, the center is launching a "low-carbon agriculture revolution" aimed at drastically reducing carbon emissions in the agricultural sector.

View of Yeoncheon County Office. Provided by Yeoncheon County

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Yeoncheon County announced that it will implement a pilot project to test the effectiveness of "plasma fertilizer technology," which is a core initiative of a work agreement signed in 2025 with the Plasma Technology Research Center at the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy. The technology will be applied to the cultivation of adlay, the county's representative crop, in order to verify its potential to replace chemical fertilizers and reduce carbon emissions.

In response to the surge in chemical fertilizer prices and supply instability caused by geopolitical risks such as the Middle East war, Yeoncheon County will officially begin demonstration of a "plasma fertilizer self-sufficiency model" in 2025, based on the work agreement with the Plasma Technology Research Center.

This technology extracts nitrogen from the air to immediately manufacture nitrogen fertilizer on-site, allowing farms to supply essential nutrients without imported raw materials. This is expected to significantly reduce the management costs for adlay farmers-who are particularly sensitive to fertilizer price increases-while also providing a stable production base.

The demonstration project is being carried out as a public-private-research collaboration model, combining administrative support from the Yeoncheon County Agricultural Technology Center, core technology from the research institute, and cultivation expertise from the Yeoncheon County Adlay Research Association.

Beyond simply promoting crop growth, the project aims to realize low-carbon agriculture by reducing carbon emissions generated during the production and transportation of chemical fertilizers. Starting with adlay, Yeoncheon County plans to expand and distribute this technology to other major crops in the region, thereby establishing a "Yeoncheon-style agricultural security system" and becoming a hub for advanced scientific agriculture that is resilient to external challenges.

Lee Wonhee, Director of the Yeoncheon County Agricultural Technology Center, stated, "The agreement with the Plasma Technology Research Center is not merely about introducing new technology, but about addressing the urgent issues of agricultural security and carbon neutrality of our time. We will set the standard for low-carbon scientific agriculture, starting with Yeoncheon adlay."

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