Summer paprika cultivation, hydrogen-electric tractors, seeding evaluation… Three promising agri-food R&D technologies unveiled

Domestic paprika exports average around 2,500 tons per month, but during the off-season from August to October they fall by about 40% to roughly 1,500 tons. Even among highland farms in Gangwon that have introduced summer cropping, the share of production in the second half of the year remained at only 36.1–39.9%. Although high nighttime temperatures coincide with reduced solar radiation, most research on leaf and fruit thinning standards has focused on winter cropping, leaving summer-cropping farms with virtually no cultivation guidelines to rely on.

A 19 kW electric tractor is estimated to have a battery operating time of about 1.25 hours under high-load conditions, meaning it would have to carry a 64.8 kWh-class battery weighing 527 kg to endure eight hours of work. Large square balers—machines that compress and bind rice straw and forage—require at least 115–160 horsepower at the power take-off (PTO), which sends tractor power to implements, so mid-sized and semi-large tractors of 100 horsepower or less have been excluded from the work altogether. 

Performance evaluation of seeders is still carried out outdoors by workers counting seeds one by one. Weather, soil conditions, and illumination vary from test to test, making it difficult to fix conditions, and even when image processing and artificial intelligence (AI) are applied, soil color and foreign matter can prevent seeds from being distinguished from the background.

Technologies that could resolve these field difficulties were unveiled at the presentation. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture and Forestry (IPET) held the ‘2026 Agri-Food R&D Promising Technologies Presentation in the Eco-friendly and Green Bio Fields’ on September 14 at the Korea Science and Technology Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, and introduced technologies with high commercialization potential among agri-food R&D outcomes. Researcher presentations and one-on-one technical consultations for companies were held together.

Summer-cropping paprika sets standards based on the number of flowers and leaves on lateral shoots

The ‘paprika cultivation method for increasing production’ presented by the Kangwon National University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation (researchers Il-seop Kim, Dong-cheol Jang, and Seung-ho Yang) is a technology that raises yield by managing the number of flowers and leaves on lateral shoots by growth stage. Seedlings are grown until 12 true leaves emerge and then transplanted into rockwool media; only two to three main stems are left, and the growing points are removed to stop further growth. Lateral branches are also pruned to leave only one to three. For each lateral branch, one flower and one leaf on the main stem are treated as one unit; only one to three combined flower-and-leaf units are left, and the rest are removed. In three-stem cultivation, where three main stems are retained, growth conditions were proposed based on a planting density of 6.8 stems per square meter, an average temperature of 20–22°C, a carbon dioxide concentration of 400–700 ppm, and a supplied electrical conductivity (EC) of 2.3–2.8 mS/cm.

In a 40-week test conducted with four treatment plots in a plastic-film greenhouse in Inje-gun, Gangwon, when the number of fruit sets was the same, more leaves led to more fruit setting, and when the number of leaves was the same, fewer fruit sets resulted in faster development of vegetative organs. In the fifth section, the late growth stage, F1L2 was about 77% higher than F2L2, and in the third section, the node development rate differed by up to about 28% depending on the treatment. This means that the combination of leaf number and fruit set directly determines the growth balance. The technology is at Technology Readiness Level 5 (validation in a relevant environment, TRL 5), and Patent No. 10-2573495 (filed November 22, 2021) has been registered.

Combining hydrogen, batteries, and capacitors to attach a baler to a mid-sized tractor

The ‘eco-friendly (hydrogen/electric) and smart technology for developing future agricultural mobility’ introduced by the research team of Professor Yong-joo Kim of the Chungnam National University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation (Department of Biosystems Machinery Engineering) takes an approach that changes the power-source configuration. It organizes the power source with a hydrogen fuel-cell module, main battery, and capacitor, and uses a power distribution unit to distribute output to the drive unit. Professor Kim said that, in addition, an auxiliary motor, auxiliary battery, and inverter are separately coupled to the tractor’s power take-off to deliver power directly to the baler.

The key is when it intervenes. Professor Kim explained, “Sensors detect the rotational load of the forming rollers and the movement of the binding net, and the auxiliary motor is operated only during the bale forming and binding sections. When output demand surges above 50%, the power distribution unit checks the state of charge of the capacitor module, which is divided into two parts, draws power from the side that meets the standard, and if the capacitor falls short of the standard, the main battery supports it.” During deceleration, the auxiliary battery is recharged through regenerative braking, and by responding separately to momentary high loads and continuous output, the structure can expand the working range of a mid-sized electric tractor without excessively increasing the power source. The technology is currently at Technology Readiness Level 3 (laboratory validation, TRL 3).

Seeding performance evaluation moves indoors

A research team led by Professor Dae-hyun Lee of Chungnam National University’s Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation (Department of Biosystems Machinery Engineering) presented a ‘background-replaceable image collection device and method for simulating agricultural work environments.’ The reference surface plate on which seeds are scattered is made of transparent material, and beneath it, background simulation plates that reproduce different soils are slid left and right for replacement. Seung-woo Kang, a doctoral researcher at Chungnam National University’s Agricultural Visual Intelligence Laboratory who gave the presentation that day, explained, “Because the structure obtains images while changing only the background and leaving the seed distribution as it is, large amounts of training data that were difficult to collect repeatedly outdoors can be accumulated indoors.” A separate white monochrome evaluation plate is used for labeling and generating reference data, and the error rate is calculated by comparing detection results from the evaluation background and the simulated background, then fed back into correction of the detection model. The ability to implement it using only image sensors without expensive sensors was also presented as a strength. This technology is also at Technology Readiness Level 5.

Greenhouses at $74.1 billion, balers at $12.0 billion, precision agriculture at $38.8 billion… supported by market outlooks

Related market forecasts were also presented. The global greenhouse market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.9%, from $32.8 billion in 2025 to $74.1 billion in 2033. The market for electric agricultural tractors is expected to grow from $178.31 million in 2024 to $337.13 million in 2030, at an average annual rate of 11.2%, while the baler market is forecast to expand from $6.4 billion to $12.0 billion over the same period, at 10.6% annually. The precision agriculture market is expected to expand from $15.1 billion in 2025 to $38.8 billion in 2033, with hardware including cameras, sensors, and automated control systems accounting for 66.7% of the total as of 2025.

Policy demand is also converging. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Rural Development Administration are promoting a joint agricultural robot R&D project worth a total of 57.2 billion won from 2026 to 2030, supporting 18 core tasks including precision seeding and the establishment of agricultural artificial intelligence transformation (AX) data standards and demonstration systems. This is where indoor test systems become necessary to repeatedly verify the performance of seeders and agricultural robots and secure training data under diverse soil conditions.

The key issue is the distance between the laboratory and the fields. The paprika cultivation method must be turned into a farm manual, and because the hydrogen-electric tractor power system is at the laboratory validation stage, actual machine installation and durability verification remain. For the image collection device, how broadly it can cover seed shapes by crop and soil conditions will be the variable that determines the speed of diffusion. IPET plans to continue technology-transfer consultations between researchers and companies on the technologies announced that day.