Anseong City Agricultural Technology Center Holds Timely Rice Planting Event for Region-Specific Variety 'Suchanmi'

[Suwon Ilbo=Park Chan-hyuk] The Anseong City Agricultural Technology Center (Director Lee Sang-in) held a timely rice planting event for 'Suchanmi,' a region-specific rice variety developed in Anseong, on the 4th.

The event was organized to raise awareness of the importance of timely planting in response to climate change and to widely promote the 'Suchanmi' variety, which is scheduled to be distributed in full scale beginning this year.

The event was attended by Mayor Kim Bo-ra, related government officials, leaders of regional agricultural cooperatives, representatives of Anseong Maechum Agricultural Cooperative, members and chairpersons of Anseong's Rice Research Association, and rice farming agricultural workers.

Mayor Kim Bo-ra boarded a rice transplanter and demonstrated planting to highlight the importance of distributing 'Suchanmi' and timely transplanting.

'Suchanmi' is a region-specific variety jointly developed by Anseong City and Gyeonggi Province Agricultural Technology Center and falls under the medium-maturing rice category. Developed as an intermediate glutinous rice by cross-breeding Boram Chal and Milky Queen varieties, 'Suchanmi' stands out from existing varieties with excellent taste and texture, high harvest yield, and strong adaptability to climate change due to its low premature germination rate. Additionally, as the supply of Chucheong rice, currently widely cultivated, is scheduled to cease from 2027, 'Suchanmi' is expected to establish itself as a replacement variety.

The city recommends the timely transplanting period as May 15th to 25th for late-medium-maturing varieties and May 25th to June 5th for medium-maturing varieties. This event was conducted according to the schedule for 'Suchanmi,' which is a medium-maturing variety.

Mayor Kim Bo-ra stated, "After undergoing long-term cultivation adaptability testing and taste evaluation from 2021 to 2024, 'Suchanmi' was selected as a region-specific variety of Anseong. We will continue to provide technical support and cooperation with Anseong Maechum Agricultural Cooperative so that 'Suchanmi' can establish itself as a representative variety of Anseong," and added, "We will strive to bring 'Suchanmi' to the dining tables of consumers throughout the nation."