[Interview] Kim Byeong-seok, Director of the National Institute of Crop Science at the Rural Development Administration: The Solution to Wheat and Soybean Self-Sufficiency Is “Industrial Demand”… Taking Responsibility Beyond Varieties to Food and Industry

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Korea’s self-sufficiency rate for domestic wheat stood at only about 1.5% as of 2024. The original target of 8% by 2027 has been pushed back to 2030 as the second Basic Plan for Wheat Industry Development (2026–2030) is being newly drawn up. For soybeans, the self-sufficiency rate has risen to around 40%, but processors still seek cheap imported soybeans. This means that simply creating good varieties is not enough to expand the place of domestically produced food crops.

Kim Byeong-seok, Director of the National Institute of Crop Science, who began public service in 1994 at the Pesticide Research Institute of the Rural Development Administration, finds the solution in “industrial demand.” With the 2025 organizational restructuring, the Department of Agro-Food Resources from the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences moved to the National Institute of Crop Science and was launched as the Department of Food Resource Development, creating a foundation to connect everything within one institution—from variety development to processing, commercialization, and consumption. Director Kim said, “The National Institute of Crop Science, which had been flying with one wing, has gained both wings,” adding, “We are now able to play a central role in connecting production and consumption.” The Korea Agricultural Technology Newspaper met Director Kim on September 23 and heard about changes in research methods since his inauguration, strategies for raising the self-sufficiency rate, the division of roles with the private sector, and directions for international cooperation.
 

You have worked in chemical safety and research policy, and this is your first time leading the field of food-crop research. What perspective has this background added to the operation of the institute, and what have you changed since taking office?

The biggest thing I learned through safety research is that it is important to identify risks in advance and respond preemptively, rather than trying to fix problems after they occur. In food-crop research as well, it is important to decide which problems to devote limited personnel and budgets to first. So rather than starting from researchers’ interests, I try to first look at the risks and demands actually experienced in the field, such as climate disasters, production costs, supply and demand, and industrial demand.

Since taking office, we have formed 28 “communication consultative bodies” by crop and field so that the director and department heads can directly hear the voices of farmers and industry. Demands raised at the March field-expert meeting on 12 major items, including rice, wheat, and soybeans—such as responding to weather disasters and reducing production costs—are being reflected in mid- to long-term research directions and the review of new projects. Opinions on the food-crop sector submitted to the Rural Development Administration’s “Field ON” are also being used in project planning. What I mean by field-centered research is creating a structure in which farmers’ problems become the starting point of research, and researchers take responsibility until the technologies they develop return to farmers’ hands.
 

Rural Development Administration Administrator Lee Seung-don’s goal of “shortening the period for technology development and dissemination by 30%” is the heaviest target for the National Institute of Crop Science. How do you plan to achieve it?

It does not mean that we will unreasonably shorten the research period itself. It means reducing the disconnects and waiting time that occurred after R&D ended, as technologies moved to field demonstration and then again to dissemination and commercialization. From the project-planning stage, we are applying phased research systems such as “2+1” and “3+2”: technologies developed over two years are evaluated for field applicability for one year, and technologies developed over three years are carried through to field demonstration for two years. Technologies whose effects are confirmed will not remain with individual farms but will be rapidly scaled up into specialized production complexes.

We are also strengthening full-cycle “Seed to Table” research that considers varieties, cultivation, processing, and consumption together from the outset. Rice for brewing is a good example. This year, we established a 1-ha contract cultivation complex for “Hwayeon” in connection with Hwayo and Yeoju City, and we are developing a premium distilled spirit using about 7 tons of raw grain, with a target launch in June 2027. A limited edition by HiteJinro using 100% of the distilled-spirit rice variety “Juhyangmi” was released in September.
 

The wheat self-sufficiency rate still remains in the 1% range as of 2024. What are you pursuing to raise the self-sufficiency rate?

Rice is almost 100% self-sufficient, so there is no major problem, but wheat and soybeans are the biggest challenges. For wheat, we have set a target of 8% by 2030, but there are concerns. Price and quality differences with imported wheat are intertwined, making it difficult industrially. It has been four to five years since we created the Division of Wheat and Barley Crops and began full-scale wheat research, and although we are spreading dedicated varieties for bread, noodles, and confectionery, we have not been able to properly consume the wheat produced on 9,000 to 10,000 ha.

Recently, however, I can feel things changing. The Rural Development Administration has installed milling facilities in four places—Gurye, Gimje, Gumi, and Hamyang—and established a system to supply customized flour by use to bakeries and noodle manufacturers. Bakers who used to say that domestic wheat flour’s quality varied each time and forced them to change their recipes now say it is reliable. This time, we asked master confectionery and baking technicians and the Korea Confectionery Association to evaluate varieties. In effect, the people who make bread are participating in variety development. Domestic wheat flour is 2.2 to 2.5 times more expensive than imported flour, but because consumers eat one bag over a long period, the burden is not large. I believe we are beginning to emerge from the slump.
 

Processors still prefer cheap imported soybeans. What technical solutions can differentiate domestic soybeans?

The soybean self-sufficiency rate has risen to about 40%. The policy effect of increased cultivation of alternative crops in paddy fields under the Strategic Crop Direct Payment Program was significant, but the improved yield and quality of our soybeans also played a large role. Our soybeans produce 390 to 400 kg per 10 ares, while Japan cannot exceed 200 to 250 kg.

There are three ways to enhance price competitiveness. The first is yield. Increasing 200 kg to 400 kg is the same as cutting the price in half. The second is reducing labor input through mechanization. Soybean pods shatter easily, making it difficult to harvest all at once, but if we develop shattering-resistant varieties whose pods do not open until fully ripe, they can be harvested by machine all at once. The third is increasing consumers’ willingness to pay through functionality. The black soybean “Cheongja 5” has a high anthocyanin content and its pods do not shatter easily, enabling mechanical harvesting; it has become so established that it accounts for more than 60% of domestic black soybean cultivation. “Soman,” a black soybean rich in antioxidant components such as anthocyanins, is undergoing natto product demonstration with Pulmuone, and we have also developed technology to localize plant-based protein materials using domestic “Daewonkong” soybeans and rice flour. We have also signed an agreement with Sempio to expand the use of domestic raw materials. We believe the 2027 self-sufficiency target of 43% is achievable if current policies are maintained.

Sesame and perilla are moving in the same direction. The sesame varieties “Seulgi” and “Roum” contain 13 to 14 mg per gram of lignans, antioxidant components confirmed to improve memory, which is about three times higher than foreign and ordinary sesame seeds (4 to 5 mg). Their yield is also 130 to 150 kg per 10 ares, 6 to 8% higher than “Geonbaek,” the most widely cultivated variety, and “Roum” has pods that do not shatter easily, enabling mechanical harvesting. In July, we signed an agreement with Andong City and a major oil-processing company and began contract cultivation of “Seulgi,” and in the second half of the year, domestic premium sesame oil pressed from “Seulgi” will be released. The perilla variety “Jian” has an alpha-linolenic acid ratio—an omega-3 fatty acid—of about 66% among total fatty acids. Perilla oil’s weakness is that it oxidizes quickly, giving it a short shelf life, so we are focusing on developing perilla varieties that slow oxidation.
 

Even when new varieties are developed, it is not easy to get farmers to switch from existing varieties. What are the difficulties and solutions in dissemination?

Farmers are reluctant to change varieties they are familiar with. Jeonbuk’s representative variety “Sindongjin” is nearly 30 years old, so it is vulnerable to high temperatures and disease. When we first released an improved variety under the name “Chamdongjin,” it was not accepted, with people saying, “Our brand is Sindongjin.” So we created a new variety that was the most similar within the Sindongjin lineage while improving disease resistance, and when we named it “Sindongjin 1,” people began to accept it. We conducted rice taste evaluations nearly 10 times with Jeonbuk State, producers, and consumers. The cultivation area for 2026 has increased to about 1,165 ha, and the Korea Seed & Variety Service is preparing to produce 500 tons of government-certified seed, enough to plant about 10,000 ha, for full-scale dissemination in 2027.

Jointly developing regionally specialized varieties with local governments is also highly effective. Icheon declared seed independence by replacing existing foreign varieties 100% with “Haedeul” and “Alchanmi,” and Yeoju will also apply for registration of a regional variety this year. When farmers and agricultural technology centers participate together from the development stage, word of mouth spreads among leading farmers, and the speed of dissemination becomes much faster.
 

High-temperature damage during the rice ripening stage is increasing, and problems of pre-harvest sprouting and yield variation in floury rice continue to be raised. What stage are climate-responsive varieties and floury-rice technologies at?

Climate change is no longer an exceptional disaster but a constant factor that determines farming every year. The table-rice variety “Misojinpum” maintains a head rice ratio of about 88% even under high temperatures, and its cultivation area increased from 3,717 ha in 2023 to 13,322 ha in 2025; it has been exported to nine countries and was also used as the raw grain for the official lunch boxes of “APEC 2025 KOREA.” The recently developed “Dalhami” had a 72.1% ratio of normal brown rice kernels under high-temperature ripening conditions averaging 30°C, higher than the comparison variety, and is being cultivated on 110 ha in Jeongeup. We plan to expand it to 1,500 ha by 2027.

Floury rice has moved beyond the stage of identifying problems and has entered the stage of verification in actual production complexes. “Baromi 4,” which improves the high-temperature seedling-raising and pre-harvest sprouting vulnerabilities of “Baromi 2,” lowered the pre-harvest sprouting rate from 64.4% to 18.3% and increased double-cropping yield by about 10%. In 2026, pilot projects are being carried out on 100 ha in five regions: Yesan, Gimje, Jindo, Gimcheon, and Sancheong. Applying molybdenum-containing fertilizer about 25 days before heading can reduce the pre-harvest sprouting occurrence index by up to 24%, and the pre-harvest sprouting early warning service is being applied to 1,175 farms in 75 production complexes. The goal is to complete “varieties resistant to pre-harvest sprouting + stable cultivation technology + risk prediction” as one package.
 

The first agriculture and forestry satellite has been launched. How far have crop-condition survey automation and open-field precision agriculture come?

Field-survey automation has become quite concrete. Using imagery and artificial intelligence (AI), planting density is read with about 97% accuracy, tiller number with 98%, and heading date with 99%; rice-yield prediction using transplanted area has been developed to about the 88% level. Demonstrations are underway with fixed imaging equipment at 19 locations, including provincial agricultural research and extension services, and the goal is to apply it to 690 major crop-condition survey points nationwide by 2030. Data from the agriculture and forestry satellite launched in July will also be gradually linked to crop-condition prediction after calibration, validation, and data accumulation. However, it is not desirable to immediately eliminate sample surveys. Human surveys will shift in role from “complete observation” to a focus on “verification and confirmation of exceptional situations.”

In open fields, unmanned operation is not easy because weather and soil changes are large, but full-cycle precision agriculture for soybean production is already at the field-demonstration stage. Variable-rate fertilization based on soil scanning reduced fertilizer use by about 20%. We have built a 10-ha testbed on reclaimed land in Saemangeum and opened it to the private sector, and agricultural machinery companies such as Daedong are verifying autonomous tractors, transport robots, drone diagnostics, and pest-control technologies in actual soybean fields.
 

Unlike vegetables, private breeding is not active in the food-crop sector. What role do you think private companies should play?

For potatoes, the Gangwon State Agricultural Research and Extension Services and private breeding companies are playing roles, and in rice as well, the private sector is active in specialty rice such as aromatic rice and industrial-use rice. However, for table rice, which accounts for most of the 670,000 ha of rice area, I believe the government-certified seed system should be maintained because it is directly linked to food security. It is not we who decide this, but farmers and the public. The criteria are whether government-certified seed helps farmers’ income and whether it stabilizes rice prices, which place a significant burden on households.

In Haenam, we are carrying out a long-grain rice project with Sejong University and Seedpia, using the Rural Development Administration’s budget to foster the private sector. As with horticultural crops, the government will continue to expand a cooperative system in which it possesses core technologies and breeding materials and supports the private sector. In national defense as well, once we began making weapons ourselves, import prices fell. Because the nation has breeding technology capabilities, imported products cannot come in at high prices. We must coexist, not compete.
 

There are criticisms that although our varieties and cultivation technologies go overseas, agricultural machinery and materials do not go with them. What is the role of the National Institute of Crop Science in “technology package exports”?

International cooperation must also move beyond the method of delivering a single seed or a single technology and develop into package-type cooperation that bundles “varieties-seeds-cultivation technology-agricultural machinery and materials-processing and utilization” according to local conditions. In Uzbekistan, “Sadaf” and “Billur,” selected jointly by the Korea Partnership for Innovation of Agriculture (KOPIA) and the local rice research institute, were registered as national varieties in 2024, and mechanical transplanting using Korean agricultural machinery reduced labor by 70% and increased productivity by up to 52%. The National Institute of Crop Science is not an organization that directly exports agricultural machinery, but it can play the role of a “technical connector” that establishes standards for which cultivation methods and equipment suit which varieties and links companies.

The K-Rice Belt is significant in that the breeding experience that solved Korea’s food problem with Tongil rice has expanded to the stage of contributing to other countries’ food security. It began with seven countries in 2023, and with Sierra Leone joining this year, it has grown to eight countries. In 2025, 6,365 tons of rice seed were produced, bringing the three-year cumulative total to 12,248 tons, and the average yield in participating countries more than doubled from the local conventional practice of 2.2 tons per ha to 4.6 tons. Ultimately, the goal is to create a self-reliant cooperation system in which local partners use varieties, seeds, and agricultural machinery on their own.
 

If you had to choose one thing you definitely want to leave behind during your term, what would it be?

I want to firmly establish a research system in which food-crop research does not end with “production” but is completed through “food and industry.” Simply stitching together research results from each department is not enough. From the variety-development stage, we must consider cultivation, processing, functionality, and marketability together, and a way of working in which research departments, the field, and industry move like “one team” must take root as the basic research culture of the National Institute of Crop Science. Beyond being an institute that is good at production, I want to lay the foundation so that the direction of becoming an institute that takes responsibility for the value of our food crops all the way through food and industry does not end as a one-off project.