[Interview] KSAM President Jeong Seon-ok…ISMAB 2026 to Share Agricultural Machinery Market and Industry Trends from Five Asian Countries

A total of 317 abstracts have been submitted to this year’s 12th International Symposium on Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering(ISMAB 2026), including 166 oral presentations and 151 posters. About 450 people have pre-registered, and the society expects around 550 participants including on-site registrants. Jeong Seon-ok, president of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery(professor at Chungnam National University), who has attended the society since the late 1990s and served as editorial secretary and vice president, said, “As far as I remember, this seems to be the largest number” of abstract submissions. According to President Jeong, attendance at the society’s academic conferences had averaged around 200–250 people.

ISMAB is an international academic conference held every two years in rotation by the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery(KSAM), the Japanese Society of Agricultural Machinery(JSAM), and the Taiwan Agricultural Machinery Society(CIAM). This year it is hosted by the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery and held together with the fall academic conference. The event will take place at BEXCO in Busan from October 20 to 24, under the theme ‘Strengthening Global Competitiveness and Exploring Market Opportunities’.

We spoke with President Jeong Seon-ok about the significance and detailed programs of this ISMAB, which is being held together with the fall academic conference, as well as current issues in the agricultural machinery industry.
 

Overseas speakers asked to cover their domestic market·industry trends…Five countries to present in keynote session 5

President Jeong first cited international cooperation as the significance of this conference. The society has steadily exchanged with China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and others, and is gradually expanding ties with South America, Africa, and the United States. President Jeong explained, “Korea·Japan·Taiwan are carrying on the tradition while also looking after neighboring countries and jointly pursuing international cooperation and trend monitoring.”

This is also why an academic event has put ‘market’ at the forefront as its theme. The society asked overseas speakers to make sure to include market trends and industry trends in their countries’ agricultural sectors, as well as research and development(R&D) status. The results can be seen in the keynote session on the morning of the 21st. The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization·(PHilMech) will present strategies for agricultural transformation through mechanization, while Universiti Putra Malaysia will present the status and market trends of the small and medium-sized food machinery industry. National Ilan University in Taiwan and Kyoto University in Japan will introduce agricultural machinery market trends and industry conditions in their respective countries, and President Jeong will present trends in Korea’s smart precision agriculture.

Materials from overseas presentations will be included in the Proceedings(Proceedings), a collection of academic research papers, so that members can use them. President Jeong emphasized, “More than what is gained immediately by creating a network, when Korean researchers or companies visit overseas, going through the society makes it much easier to meet local companies·and government officials,” adding, “International networks are essential for members.”

The reason the society holds its academic conference independently rather than attaching it to another event is also related to the society’s standing. President Jeong noted, “Holding it together reduces costs, but it becomes an event that is neither one thing nor the other, and members lose interest,” adding, “Even when 200–250 people came each time, many paid the registration fee, gave their presentations and disappeared.” He said, “The academic conference is the flower of the society,” and added, “We are running it as a separate event to raise the society’s status and the quality of the academic conference.”

 From autonomous agricultural machinery companies to training personnel for rental service centers, seven special sessions 7

The second feature is the special sessions. Continuing the special-session format introduced at the spring academic conference, seven sessions will be held on the 21st–22nd.

Many sessions have a strong industry focus. ‘AgTech companies’ Physical AI technology development and commercialization strategies’ session will feature Agmo, Daedong AI Lab, LSMtron, TYM ICT(TYM ICT), IO Crops, MetaFarmers, and Bosch Korea, who will share the safety and commercialization experiences of autonomous agricultural machinery. ‘Current status of smart greenhouse horticulture and strategies for securing international competitiveness’ session will cover the localization of imported equipment and directions for overseas expansion by domestic companies such as Green Plus and Green CS. In addition, there will be an industry-academia-research technology exchange meeting by Kyungpook National University’s Upland Field Agricultural Machinery Development Research Center, the Rural Development Administration’s ‘Trustworthy Agricultural AI’ session, a postharvest process session, and a session on agricultural robot research trends led by Dr. Yang Seung-hwan of the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology.

The session President Jeong singled out as especially worth attending is ‘Measures to disseminate on-site agricultural machinery technology and train professional personnel’. It will be led by Professor Hong Soon-jung of Korea National University of Agriculture and Fisheries, with presentations on the operating status of rental service offices at city and county agricultural technology centers and the current state of training personnel for agricultural machinery after-sales management. President Jeong described it as “a forum dealing with workforce development among extension agencies and instructors, which we had not usually paid attention to, and problems in the field.”

General oral presentations will be divided into six fields—precision agricultural machinery, AI·information processing, open-field machinery, postharvest·food processing, smart farms·renewable energy, and bioprocesses—and held in 8 presentation rooms. Awards, including best presentation awards by field, will be given to around 15% of presentations, and the awards ceremony will take place at the closing ceremony on the 22nd. On the 23rd, a technical tour will be held of the Southern Crop Department of the National Institute of Crop Science(Miryang) and the Protected Horticulture Research Institute of the National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science(Haman). Committee meetings will be held on the 24th.
 

Four technical lectures for students 4…“The minimum effort needed to protect our society”

On the first day of the conference, the 20th, four technical lectures for students will be held. This year, mechanical analysis has been added to agricultural robots, agricultural AI, and computational fluid dynamics(CFD) for smart farms. President Jeong said, “I think that for graduates who majored in agricultural machinery, the four areas including AI, robots and others are essential,” adding, “It will be an opportunity to learn both practice and hands-on training from the top professors·and instructors in each field.” She explained, “If we continue to address these fields, when people ask about expertise in agricultural robots or AI, they will come to recognize the agricultural machinery society, and its status will also rise,” adding, “We respect all disciplines, but this is the minimum effort needed to protect our society.”

The society is also working to establish the identity of agricultural machinery. Professor Hong Soon-jung is preparing a related report of about 100 pages. President Jeong said, “Only after this is organized can we state what the core subjects of agricultural machinery are in the development of the National Competency Standards(NCS) by the Ministry of Employment and Labor·and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Education’s academic classification, certifications, civil service job series and the appointment of high school teachers,” adding, “Based on future results, we will pursue a National Assembly forum.”

 Responding to the offensive by Chinese agricultural machinery with package solutions…ODA as a path to exports

Asked whether the domestic agricultural machinery industry is caught between low-priced Chinese products and large companies in advanced countries, President Jeong answered, “In a free-market economy, it is difficult to block them artificially,” and said, “We have to make good use of it.” She continued, “Some parts may come from China, but Korea can handle package solutions,” adding, “When agriculture becomes a data-based system, we need to create an ecosystem in which domestic companies take charge of the system even if individual machines or parts are foreign-made.” Her explanation is that building up our own technology in this way and exporting it is the policy direction suited to the global era.

She cited official development assistance(ODA) as a way to open the path to exports. This is because a significant portion of agricultural ODA is related to agricultural machinery, such as wells, waterways, mechanization demonstration complexes, and drying facilities. President Jeong emphasized, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Korea Rural Community Corporation, and the Rural Development Administration should join forces to address agriculture at a broad level and agricultural machinery at a narrower level through ODA,” adding, “ODA is first and foremost about helping, but if we are going to give anyway, we should give properly so that it helps that country, leads to exchange, and also benefits the national interest.” The point is that projects should not stop at supplying Korean-made agricultural machinery; they should also bundle parts·assembly plants, maintenance training centers, and exchanges between national universities in the two countries, so that even after the project ends, machines can be repaired and used and technology can be transferred in a virtuous cycle. She added, “Advanced agricultural machinery can be sent to places such as national demonstration complexes, but we must customize and send what local people want.”