Room 404 Dormmates Rise to the Top of the Women Farmers' Agricultural Machinery Challenge

Room 404 of the dormitory at the Smart Farm Innovation Valley in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province. About a year ago, upon entering a youth farmer training course, three trainees sharing this room and the wife of one of their classmates formed a team and won the Grand Prize at the "2nd Women Farmers' Agricultural Machinery Challenge," held on September 9 at the Rural Development Administration's Rural Human Resources Development Center. The team name "T404" was also taken from the room number. The initial "T" stands for Team, and is also the first letter of Tomato, the crop they are currently practicing with.

Each team member has taken a different path. The youngest, Park Su-mi (24, Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province), naturally entered the Innovation Valley after attending Korea Life Science High School and Korea National College of Agriculture and Fisheries. Park So-hyun (33, Chilgok, North Gyeongsang Province) came here while preparing to return to farming after being discharged from the Air Force, where she spent 12 years as a technical noncommissioned officer in charge of maintaining aircraft support equipment. The eldest, Park Hee-jung (38, Yesan, South Chungcheong Province), decided to leave behind a long career and take over the family business from her father, who runs an apple orchard in Yesan. Hee-jung said, "Open-field farming has its own appeal, but its limitations are also becoming clear, so I wanted to learn new technologies and try applying them," adding, "After learning greenhouse cultivation, I plan to apply it to apples."

Four people competed as one team. So-hyun heard about the competition while receiving 70 hours of agricultural machinery training at the Gyeongsangbuk-do Agricultural Research and Extension Services, and when they were short one member, Hee-jung's Innovation Valley classmate recommended his wife, Sako Yumi, completing the team. Su-mi took charge of driving the tractor and trailer and giving hand signals for loading and unloading the combine; Hee-jung handled the combine; So-hyun handled the cultivator; and Sako Yumi handled the transplanter.

From hand signals for the combine to turning the cultivator, each had a wall to overcome 

Full-fledged practice began about a month before the competition. They took part twice in preliminary practice sessions held in Jeonju, and they separately asked the Gyeongbuk Agricultural Research and Extension Services for additional training, practicing two more times for two days and one night each. In Gyeongbuk, they used a combine with a larger body than the one used in the competition and a trailer with a longer coupling, and the practice track was narrow compared with the size of the tractor, making the difficulty even higher.

Even for Su-mi, who had the most experience handling agricultural machinery, it was not easy. It had been three or four years since she had practiced at school with an empty trailer attached, and this time she had to drive with a combine loaded on it. What was even harder was the hand signaling. Su-mi said, "Hand signals were much harder than driving. In the end, the combine has to trust me and follow, but if I give the wrong signal, it becomes dangerous," adding, "The biggest burden was having to indicate the timing accurately."

 

For Hee-jung, who had never handled agricultural machinery before, fear was the biggest obstacle. As an only daughter, her parents had not even let her go near agricultural machinery because they said it was dangerous. With a combine, the gearshift lever has to be moved little by little to put it in neutral, but during practice, it did not properly go into neutral and the machine once slid down from the trailer. Hee-jung confessed, "Because I was afraid it might fall, I found myself looking only at the ground right in front of me instead of at the hand signals," adding, "The hardest part was the pressure of overcoming fear and entrusting everything to my younger teammate while watching the signals."

So-hyun, who was in charge of the cultivator, hit a wall from the first day. To make two rows of raised beds, she had to change direction, but she could not overcome the engine's power, so the machine would not turn. She even considered switching roles, but a field instructor taught her how to shift her center of gravity backward, and she eventually found the solution. 

YouTube all night after the combine slipped, and "strategy meetings" without machinery

They filled the gaps with teamwork. On the day the combine slipped, Hee-jung could not sleep and studied how to operate it on YouTube all night. Su-mi also went home that day, relearned the hand signals, and organized in chronological order what signals to give at which point. Even on days without machinery, the three trainees gathered in the dormitory and repeatedly held "strategy meetings" to coordinate their movements.

Hee-jung said, "The younger members kept advising me from beside me on how the machine moves and where it needs to stop," adding, "Even though I am the eldest, the younger ones actually led me more maturely."

A "nerve-racking" moment when the engine would not start... "We could not have done better"

There were critical moments in the real event as well. So-hyun broke into a sweat at the starting line when the cultivator's engine would not start. It had never happened during practice. A staff member offered to help, but she said she would try just once more and pulled the cord again, and fortunately the engine started. The cultivator and transplanter pair focused on completeness rather than speed. The criteria were whether the furrows were straight, whether the plastic mulch finish at the end of the raised bed was neat, and whether the first seedlings were planted in evenly aligned positions. So-hyun said, "I put a lot of effort into the finishing touches so that people watching from outside could say it looked beautiful."

The tractor and combine pair focused on the coordination between hand signals and judgment. The tractor succeeded in reversing on the first try, and the combine went straight up onto the trailer and came straight back down. Su-mi recalled, "It was the most perfect run among everything we had practiced up to that point. We could not have done better."

In fact, their goal had not been to win. Their goal was to make memories together as a team, place within the top 20, and finish safely without getting hurt. Several teams changed members during the competition, but T404 completed the event with the same four people from the start. At the awards ceremony, they expected to place as high as seventh and as low as 15th. After 15th place passed and then seventh place passed without their name being called, they were announced at the end as the Grand Prize-winning team.

After the Grand Prize, families see them differently and farming plans broaden 

Their families' reactions changed upon hearing the news of the award. Hee-jung's father offered a joking congratulations, saying he should buy his daughter a tractor and a combine, and her in-laws even called it "an honor for the family." Su-mi, who first began driving after entering the Innovation Valley, was also told by her father, who had been anxious about her driving, that she could now drive the family's tractor.

Their confidence also broadened their farming plans. So-hyun, who had only been thinking about greenhouse cultivation, began considering open-field farming as well. As rural populations age, young people returning to farming often take over surrounding farmland, so she thought she might expand into open-field crops such as rice or potatoes. Hee-jung emphasized, "There are many cases where people could do it if they learned, but cannot because they are afraid," adding, "There need to be more opportunities for women farmers to learn agricultural machinery in public settings."

From management-style tomato practice to rebuilding an apple orchard

The three trainees of T404 are currently doing management-style practical training with the tomato team among 51 trainees in the eighth cohort of the Sangju Smart Farm Innovation Valley. Of the 20-month program, they have completed two months of theory education and six months of educational practical training at outside farms, and are now at the stage of directly cultivating and even selling crops for one year. After finishing their first crop of fully ripe tomatoes, they are now growing cherry tomatoes. Su-mi cited "water cutoff" management, in which water is reduced immediately after transplanting so the roots search for water and extend deeper, as her biggest lesson.

When they complete the program in April 2027, the three will try to move into the Sangju rental smart farm as a team. Four teams (12 to 15 people) are selected based on combined grades and activities, and if chosen, they can use a greenhouse for three years at a lower rate than the market price. Even if they are not selected, they are determined to apply to rental smart farms run by other local governments and gain as much experience as possible. Their different backgrounds, including military maintenance experience, agricultural majors, and personnel management experience gained through office work, are also assets they rely on.
 

After that, each of them has her own dream. Hee-jung's goal is to become "the pride of Yesan." In his younger days, her father carved away a mountain himself and built an orchard of about 3,000 to 5,000 pyeong, but after virtually giving up on one year's harvest because of climate change and disease damage, he let go of many things. Hee-jung said she would combine the technologies she learned at the Innovation Valley with the agricultural research service's achievements in varietal improvement to expand the cultivated area and revive her father's orchard. She said, "I do not have certainty that things will naturally get better, but making them better is the role of someone who has learned at institutions like these."

Su-mi's goal is to become a good role model for graduates of her alma maters, Korea Life Science High School and Korea National College of Agriculture and Fisheries. She said that if she has the chance, she would like to give lectures in front of younger students. Believing that agriculture ultimately requires one's own technical expertise, she plans to continue studying even after graduation.

So-hyun set a goal after seeing the head of the farm in Goryeong, North Gyeongsang Province, where she did her educational practical training, recently designated as an agricultural meister. She wants to start her own business, following the example of someone who steadily studies while building her own farm, and someday take on the challenge of becoming a meister herself. With an eye toward sales channels as well, she is newly studying food processing at university.

Asked whether they regretted choosing this path, the three answered without hesitation, "We do not regret it."