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01. Growing New Varieties of Horticultural Crops and Productivity Improvement
The recent market opening in agriculture brought about by the expansion of FTA has significantly affected horticultural industry in Korea. In addition, price increase in raw materials such as crude oil, bed soil, and fertilizer ? indispensable inputs to horticultural crop production and are highly dependent on foreign trade ? have a huge impact to the farmers. Unstable conditions of supply and demand in horticultural products are also predicted due to the climate changes that increase crop damage, unexpected diseases and unstable crop production. More importantly, royalty payments for foreign cultivars or varieties have increased because of strengthening protection of intellectual property rights on new varieties.
Agenda 12 consists of 9 projects aimed at developing global horticultural crop varieties or cultivars and reducing royalty payment. The goals include development and dissemination of new horticultural varieties or cultivars to improve export competitiveness; construction of stable and environment-friendly horticultural crop production system under abnormal weather; and improvement of labor-saving cultivation techniques and horticultural products¡¯ quality for reducing production cost.
Various researches are focused on the development of new vegetable varieties for international export as well as new flower and fruit cultivars to reduce royalty payment and improved quality, respectively. Wide use of post-harvest management technology and environment-friendly production system are also important in securing product competitiveness. Researches are also focused on developing and disseminating standard instructions for stable plug seedling production system under poor environment, evaluation system for horticultural crop damages from lack of sunshine and cold wave, and cultivation methods to reduce damages from unexpected diseases and pests. In addition, labor-saving, high-quality horticultural crop production system will be developed and disseminated to reduce production cost and, thus, to improve price competitiveness. Meanwhile, researches on interaction among plants, human, and environment are conducted in relation to relieving stress and promoting health among urban residents by utilizing vegetable garden, roof garden, and nature experience.