“Golden Rice Ears” in a 40-Year Barren Land…K-Agricultural Technology Solves Mongolia’s Challenge

“On the day rice ears formed in a barren land where the ground was below freezing and even the water was cold, the vice minister of agriculture and local farmers could not leave the rice paddy levee, their eyes reddening with tears.”

A highland region at an average elevation of 1,600 meters, a short growing season, strongly alkaline soil, and cold glacial water flowing down from the mountains. Mongolia has been self-sufficient in meat and wheat, but has depended 100% on imports for rice. In 2023, Mongolia’s rice imports reached 57,900 tons (according to UN Comtrade). For more than 40 years, it attempted to cultivate rice on its own, but failed time and again.

What filled that 40-year gap was South Korea’s agricultural technology. Oh Myung-kyu, Director of the Mongolia Center of the Rural Development Administration’s Korea Partnership for Innovation of Agriculture (KOPIA), successfully carried out the entire process from transplanting to harvest in the Bulgan County area of Khovd Province in western Mongolia. It was such a meaningful result that even the Mongolian president came forward to present an order of merit and express gratitude.

Director Oh entered public service in 1992 as a rural extension officer at the Rural Development Administration and worked in crop breeding research for rice, sesame, and other crops. After serving as a division director at the National Institute of Crop Science and in the Department of Southern Area Crop Science, he took office as Director of the KOPIA Mongolia Center in April 2023. He had never visited Mongolia before his appointment. “Originally, I was thinking of supporting the African region, but my family objected. So I applied for the then-vacant position of director of the Mongolia Center,” he explained. The Korea Agricultural Technology News spoke with Director Oh Myung-kyu by phone to hear the behind-the-scenes story of the “Mongolia-adapted rice cultivation project” and future strategies for exporting K-agriculture packages.

All the rice planted in the first year died…The failure of 2024

It began with a request from Mongolia’s vice minister of agriculture. As diets changed and rice consumption increased, domestic cultivation kept failing; could Korea help? It was a polite but desperate proposal.

The first attempt came in 2024. But the conditions were unfavorable from the start. The trial cultivation site pointed out by the Mongolian side was not land suitable for rice farming. Director Oh knew this, but the project could not be postponed.

They completed transplanting, but the problem came afterward. The soil acidity (pH) was excessively high, and as temperatures rose, the rice could not properly absorb nutrients and agrochemicals. There was not much room for intervention. In the end, all the rice planted that year died, and the first crop ended without a harvest. After identifying the cause of the failure, the KOPIA Mongolia Center moved the trial field the following year to Bulgan County, Khovd Province, Mongolia. 

“There were no farms, no paddies, and no technicians”…Remote command over a 3,600 km round trip

Bulgan County was the outermost limit where extremely early-maturing varieties could be grown within the available growing season. But this place too was, in Director Oh’s words, “a state of nothingness, with no farms, no paddies, and no technicians.” There were not even irrigation facilities.

From the center in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, to the trial field was a 3,600 km round trip. It was too far to be stationed there permanently. Director Oh had to rely on photos sent daily by local staff and remotely instruct emergency measures. The strongly alkaline soil drained water too well, and the water flowing down from the mountains was cold enough to be fatal to rice growth. With no equipment available, most work—from creating the paddies to fertilization and harvesting—was done by hand.

A hint gained in the UAE desert…“Extending seedling raising to 40 days”

The breakthrough came from past experience. Director Oh had previously participated, as the division director in charge, in a rice cultivation project in the desert region of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and helped make it a success.

He explained, “If the UAE was winter cultivation that utilized high temperatures and a long growing season, Mongolia is characterized by a short summer growing season and large daily temperature swings.” The conditions were the exact opposite, but the approach itself—adapting rice to an extreme environment—could be transferred.

To this, he combined a mature-seedling raising technique of 35 to 40 days that was used in Korea in the 1970s. The method extends the seedling-raising period to more than 40 days so that growth is advanced in the seedbed, thereby shortening the growing period in the main paddy by that amount. The alkaline soil was improved by appropriately applying acidic fertilizers and soil conditioners. In effect, Korea’s seedling-raising technology from half a century ago and field-proven experience from the Middle Eastern desert met in the highlands of Mongolia.

The 1990s highland variety “Jinbuolbyeo” was the answer

Variety selection was also key. In early tests, five to six varieties, centered on early-maturing types and including the variety that had succeeded in the UAE, were brought in and compared.

Among them, only “Jinbuolbyeo” survived. Developed in the early 1990s in Korea for low-temperature, highland areas, the variety withstood a short growing period of around 110 days and low-temperature conditions, and was the only one to succeed in ripening and harvesting. An old variety that had already lost its position as a mainstay in Korea found its role in Mongolia. This year, the KOPIA Mongolia Center is pursuing intensive cultivation using the single Jinbuolbyeo variety.

“Irrigate at 3 p.m.”…The July when heading stopped

The moment when the project was in greatest danger was mid-July 2025. After the first ears emerged, additional heading suddenly stopped.

Director Oh rushed to the site and identified the cause as cold irrigation water. He immediately recalculated the watering time. He switched to a “3 p.m. irrigation” system so the water coming down from the mountains would be warmed as much as possible by sunlight while moving along the water channels, and urgently applied special fertilization methods for overcoming cold-water damage and disease control.

The harvest, too, was almost entirely bare-handed. With no threshing equipment, they threshed the paddy rice with a soybean thresher, blew away chaff with an electric fan, and cut the rice with sickles. In the very paddies where locals had cheered when seedlings were planted with a rice transplanter in the Bulgan region in 2025, golden ears finally formed. Director Oh recalled, “Seeing officials, including the vice minister of agriculture, unable to leave the rice paddy levee at the harvest site and moved with emotion made my heart swell.”

A video watched by 10% of the population…An order of merit and a presidential briefing

The achievement immediately led to a response from Mongolian society. As the news spread through an influential local YouTuber and provincial government channels, it is said that more than 10% of Mongolia’s population watched related videos.

Deputy Minister Jambaltseren of Mongolia’s Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry (hereafter the Ministry of Agriculture) presented the highest agricultural order of merit in the name of the minister, and the results were announced at a briefing presided over by the Mongolian president in December 2025. The Mongolian prime minister and the ministers of agriculture and industry also conveyed their gratitude. Director Oh cited the event during President Lee Jae-myung’s visit this July as a particularly memorable moment. It was when local Korean residents showed pride, saying, “Rice is now being produced in Mongolia with Korean technology.”

He predicted that if support at the level of the Mongolian government is provided, rice self-sufficiency could be achieved within 10 years by securing 10,000 to 15,000 hectares of cultivation area.

“ODA is a mutually beneficial structure”…Beyond seeds to an integrated package

Director Oh emphasized that this achievement should be used as a foothold for the domestic agricultural industry’s entry into the market. “ODA should be a win-win structure that raises the productivity of the recipient country while enabling our agricultural industry to enter together,” he said.

In Mongolia, livestock accounts for 85% of agriculture, and the scale of livestock raising reaches 70 million head (as of 2022). This is why demand is high for Korean genetic resources (embryos), veterinary medicines, and diagnostic kits. His judgment is that rice cultivation, too, must not stop at providing seeds. Entry should be made as an “integrated package” that bundles paddy construction, irrigation facilities, open-field smart farm technology, and agricultural machinery. He said, “The technology verification KOPIA has accumulated locally will serve as priming water for our companies’ entry.”

He also offered advice to domestic agricultural materials and ag-tech companies targeting the Central Asian market. Mongolia is a geopolitical bridgehead connecting China and the Central Asian market, and a testbed with harsh conditions in terms of climate and soil. He said, “To understand the local market, regulations, and consumer trends, cooperation with KOPIA centers in 22 countries around the world—which are stationed locally and equipped with infrastructure—is essential,” adding, “KOPIA directors know local government networks and licensing routes well, so they can greatly reduce trial and error for companies.”

“Rice made with Korean technology on the shelves of Mongolian supermarkets”

Although rice cultivation has succeeded, there are many challenges to solve going forward. Two years of trial cultivation have confirmed the possibility, but the ripening rate still remains at about 30%. Compared with Korea’s rice ripening rate, which is usually over 85%, there is still a long way to go. The problem of delayed growth has also not been fully resolved. These are hurdles that must be overcome if the trial field is to be developed into a commercial cultivation complex.

To this end, Director Oh outlined a plan to collaborate with related organizations such as the Korea Rural Community Corporation to create a “Korean-style rice cultivation complex and irrigation infrastructure.”

The ultimate goal is clear. Director Oh said, “It is to officially launch rice produced with Korean technology in local Mongolian supermarkets and put it on the tables of the Mongolian people,” adding, “I will do my utmost to achieve this goal as soon as possible.” He also expressed his ambition, saying, “I will raise the ripening rate to Korea’s level of 85%.”