[Seo Jong-hyo Column] From Digging Up Sweet Potatoes to Tissue Culture

[Seo Jong-hyo Column]  Chairman Seo Jong-hyo of the National Young Farmers Federation(CEO of Huimangto / Head of Dalseo Sangin Smart Farm Facility)

 

It has been quite some time since we started a plant factory as part of urban regeneration in the old downtown area. It is called Dalseo Sangin Smart Farm, or “Dalpam” for short. At first, everyone found it strange. They wondered what kind of farm would be in the middle of a market district. I remember nearby merchants also being skeptical, asking, “What are you even growing here?” But whenever children actually come inside and see leafy vegetables such as lettuce growing in rows under artificial light, their reactions are always similar. “This is a farm?” Some only believe it after touching the vegetables with their own hands to make sure they are real.

 

That is understandable. When people think of an agricultural experience, they usually picture muddy boots, digging up sweet potatoes, or picking strawberries. I, too, have been learning farming with my hands in the soil for well over a decade since 2011, and even now I understand the value of that labor better than anyone. The experience of harvesting through sweat and effort must continue to be an essential part of agricultural education. But these days, as I meet people who visit farms as school groups or families, I often find myself thinking this: isn’t the image of agriculture we show children too far removed from what is actually happening in agriculture today?

The gap between textbooks and the field… agricultural sites evolved through advanced biotechnology
The reality of agriculture has already changed a great deal. From tissue culture, which mass-produces disease-resistant seedlings from just a few cells in a sterile room, to smart farms that precisely control light and nutrients through data, to technologies that use genetic information to select seeds suited to local environments, agriculture is now closer to biotechnology and a data industry than simply working with soil. As I carry out agricultural technology cooperation projects in Central Asia separately from operating farms in Korea, I am constantly reminded of just how much sophisticated data and technology go into something as simple as choosing a single seed. The problem is that citizens—especially growing children—have almost no opportunity to see and touch these changes for themselves. In other words, the gap between the agriculture in school textbooks and the agriculture in the real field is steadily widening.

"I can do this too"… the smart farm that changed the look in children’s eyes
There is something I feel every time I meet children at Dalpam. When I show them a tiny seedling growing into a large head of lettuce inside a building, the look in their eyes changes noticeably from that moment on. It is not just because they find it fascinating. After the question, “This is agriculture?” comes a moment when they begin to see agriculture anew—not as digging in the dirt, but as experimenting, observing, and handling data. The same is true when they see vegetables growing between dense residential buildings and physically realize that cities and agriculture are not separate from each other. One student, after finishing the tour, said, “I thought all farmers lived in the countryside, but if this is also agriculture, I think I could do it too.” Many children only then come to understand that agriculture is not just hard labor, but a place where researchers, data analysts, and people who design cultivation systems work together.

The first impression of agriculture determines the future and career paths of young farmers
What matters is that this change does not stop at merely capturing children’s interest. I believe that the image young people first associate with agriculture when considering it as a career affects how many of them actually choose to take on the field. Many young people I have met while participating in policy discussions as chairman of the Young Farmers Federation say similar things. They say that if agriculture had appeared to them not as difficult work with no future, but as an attractive industry dealing with technology and data, they would have entered it much earlier. In the end, it is no exaggeration to say that the first impression of agriculture children gain at experiential education farms determines how that generation will view agriculture ten years later.

From hoes to smart modules… a major transformation of experiential education farm infrastructure is needed
That is why I believe experiential education farms must take on a different role from now on. They should not be just outdoor activity sites people visit briefly on weekends, but gateways where people first encounter advanced agricultural technology. To spread this nationwide, several things are needed. First, policy support must be expanded so that experience-based infrastructure centered on sickles and hoes can be converted into smart farm or tissue culture experience equipment. In addition, educational content and instructor training are needed to explain specialized biotechnology such as tissue culture at a level the general public can understand. I believe that if local governments or agricultural technology centers simply add small plant factory modules or basic tissue culture observation kits to existing experience farms, the range of agriculture children encounter can be greatly broadened.

 

The biotechnology that manipulates a single seed, the precision production that grows crops with it, and the experiential education farms that show that process to citizens are in fact part of one continuous flow. If these three are kept separate, each may develop on its own, but if they never meet, they will still remain unfamiliar stories to the public. I believe that from the moment children look at tissue-cultured seedlings at an experience farm and walk through a plant factory in the city, changing their impression of agriculture, the very constitution of our agriculture will also begin to change little by little. When the hands that dig up sweet potatoes and the eyes that peer into test tubes exist together, only then will the picture of agriculture imagined by the next generation become broader.