[Interview] Kim Byung-gap, Head of the Upland Agricultural Machinery Division at the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Rural Development Administration

While the mechanization rate of rice farming has reached 99.3%, effectively achieving full mechanization, the average mechanization rate of upland farming remained at 63.3% as of 2024. Among these, mechanization in the seeding/transplanting (30%) and harvesting (50%) stages is still in its infancy. This is why the mechanization and advanced smart transformation of upland farming are considered the last line determining South Korea’s food security and agricultural sustainability, beyond simply introducing technology.
This paper met with Kim Byung-gap, head of the Upland Agricultural Machinery Division at the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences under the Rural Development Administration, who is focusing on developing machinery for upland farming and driving digital transformation, to hear about the future of South Korea’s upland agriculture and field-centered Agtech strategies.

Recently, AI and autonomous driving technologies have been actively introduced in agriculture as well. However, there are observations that compared with paddy farming (rice cultivation), upland farming has been relatively slower in adopting mechanization and advanced technologies. What is the situation on the ground?
“Just as automobiles evolved from mechanical systems to electronic systems and then to FSD (autonomous driving), agricultural machinery is following the same path. In rice farming, straight-line assist devices for rice transplanters introduced 5 to 6 years ago are already being used effectively despite initial concerns, and  in flatland areas, autonomous driving has now passed the inflection point to the extent that it is almost essential on tractors.
By contrast, upland farming still has a long way to go. Upland fields often lie on slopes and contain many rocks, so the terrain itself is rugged. In addition, there are dozens of crop types, but the cultivation area for each crop is only about one-tenth that of rice farming (50,000 to 60,000 hectares per item), making it difficult for agricultural machinery companies to establish mass-production systems. That is why mechanization is currently still at the stage of improving mechanical completeness. However, I am convinced that within 4 to 5 years, precision agriculture sensing technology and autonomous driving will be rapidly introduced into upland farming as well, centered on tractor-mounted equipment.”

There is also talk that farmers are somewhat conservative about purchasing expensive new agricultural machinery. It seems it could not have been easy to change perceptions in the field.
“There was actually a decisive turning point. It was the COVID-19 pandemic. As it became difficult to secure foreign workers, a crisis erupted during the busy farming season in which no matter how much money was offered, people could not be hired. There were even tragic cases of farmers making extreme choices because they could not find labor. From that point on, farmers came to realize desperately that ‘labor-centered farming is no longer viable; machinery is the only answer.’
In response, and in step with the demands from the agricultural field including younger and middle-aged farmers, the Administrator also paid special attention to this issue. Since last year, a total budget of 16 billion won has been投入 to promote ‘full-process mechanization for 8 major crops.’ For 16 work stages where seeding/transplanting and harvesting had not been mechanized, we plan to complete 100% development of properly functioning machines by next year (2027).”

I understand that you have developed an innovative transplanter that can plant cabbage and peppers at the same time and are preparing for mass production in the second half of the year.
“It is the ‘cabbage-pepper dual-purpose transplanter,’ which completed field demonstration events this spring in major production areas such as Yeongyang, North Gyeongsang Province. Peppers and cabbage share overlapping major production areas and have many growers, and because agricultural machinery is expensive, we maximized economic efficiency so that both crops can be planted with a single machine.
There was feedback from the field such as, ‘For cabbage, the seedlings are small so too much soil covers them,’ and ‘For peppers, the seedlings are large, so the tips are damaged when they are planted and come up,’ so we are making improvements by finely adjusting the amount of covering soil and using seedlings with a height of 25 cm or less. In particular, farmers requested that ‘it would be nice if water could be given immediately after planting,’ so we are making a final review to reflect in the mass-production model for the second half of the year a function that places a water tank on the rear of the machine and efficiently waters only around each plant at the same time as transplanting. We expect that once full-scale mass production begins in the second half of this year, it will have  a major ripple effect for farms.”

Which crop is the most difficult to mechanize for harvesting?
“Peppers.” Garlic, onions, potatoes, and sweet potatoes—crops that grow underground—already have well-developed digging machines, and soybeans are also easy to harvest with combines. But peppers are not harvested all at once; during the summer they must be hand-picked 5 to 6 times in the order they ripen red. Machines are structured to cut the stems and harvest everything at once, so they cannot be applied, and for now this area has stepped back one pace from the government’s development targets.
However, domestic robotics companies have recently been demonstrating intelligent weeding and harvesting robots, and research is also under way on ‘variety improvement for once-over harvest types,’ in which peppers ripen all at once as in some foreign countries, so in the long term a path will open for AI robotic harvesting.”

What is the strategy for expanding the dissemination of the agricultural machinery you have developed?
“Until now, after research and development we issued press releases and held field demonstration events. But compared with the nationwide cultivation area of more than 60,000 hectares, demonstration events involving only a few farms had clear limitations.
So starting this year, we completely changed our publicity method. When we met directly with leaders of farmers’ organizations, we found that even if they do not watch Facebook or YouTube much, they all use ‘KakaoTalk.’ We plan to produce short-form videos for KakaoTalk showing the machines at work and spread them in real time through group chats of agricultural organizations nationwide. The strategy is to spread word of mouth through KakaoTalk that ‘after using it, it really is convenient and reduces labor costs.’”

I heard that as the budget allocation method for the major production area rental project was transferred to local governments starting this year, voices from the field have become even more important.
“In the past, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs accepted applications and provided the budget, but now each city and county must decide for itself, within its limited budget, whether to buy agricultural machinery or fertilizer. However, the officials in charge of agricultural machinery rental offices in cities and counties often hold lower ranks or belong to small job series, so they tend to lose out in budget competition.
The Rural Development Administration plans to provide large-scale education on the excellence of newly developed upland agricultural machinery through workshops for responsible officials from cities and counties nationwide. We will persuade local government leadership and the broader administration so that upland agricultural machinery is included in large numbers in the ‘major production area integrated mechanization project,’ under which farmers pay only 25% of the rental fee while enjoying a 75% subsidy effect. We will also strengthen a farmwork service system (contract operations) for small-scale farms of 300 pyeong or less.”

What is your vision for exports beyond the domestic market?
“If we look only at the domestic market, it is impossible to lower prices through mass production. Exporting is therefore inevitable. The current global market is already defended by advanced companies such as Japan’s Kubota, which has penetrated deeply into the Korean market, while China is mounting a formidable volume offensive from behind. China has designated agricultural mechanization as a national goal, has research institutes with around 100 staff in each province, and is providing 1 million dollars annually to international organizations in order to dominate the Asia-Pacific regional market. Compared with Korea’s contribution of 10,000 dollars, it is an enormous capital投入.
But there is nothing we cannot do either. Just as Hyundai Motor entered the U.S. in the past with low-priced cars and is now recognized through Genesis, Korean agricultural machinery must also move aggressively based on technological reliability. Currently, in cooperation with the International Technology Cooperation Division and the Export Agriculture Support Division within the Rural Development Administration, we are sounding out a pilot export project for ‘full-process potato mechanization’ tailored to local climate and varieties in the highlands of Bolivia.”

Lastly, if you had to choose one thing that is absolutely necessary for the successful establishment of upland farming mechanization, what would it be?
“It is true that R&D is fragmented across the Rural Development Administration, dissemination across the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and local governments, and exports across KOTRA and others, so there is a lack of a strong ‘central coordinating body’ to drive things forward. If I have a personal vision, it is to launch an ‘Agricultural Machinery Export and Dissemination Council’ that encompasses government agencies, private companies, and export organizations so they can move in step.
By next year, we will completely finish machine development and thoroughly prepare after-sales management, safety education, and export routes as well. As this is a matter tied to the future of our agriculture, I ask for much interest and support for the field of upland farming mechanization.”