Icheon City Holds "Digital Rice Cultivation Technology On-Site Demonstration"

[Suwon Ilbo = Reporter Um In-yong] Icheon City (Acting Mayor Park Jong-geun) announced on June 1st that it held a 'Digital Rice Cultivation Technology On-Site Demonstration' as part of the pilot project to establish labor-saving rice cultivation fields.

This demonstration was prepared to address the labor shortage resulting from rural aging and declining agricultural population, and to spread labor-saving rice cultivation models utilizing digital agricultural technology to the field.

Approximately 50 farmers and officials attended the event, which was jointly promoted by the Icheon City Agricultural Technology Center (Director Kim Dong-ho) and the Icheon City Rice Research Association.

The 'Labor-Saving Rice Cultivation Field Establishment Project' aims to build an automation foundation for the entire rice cultivation process by utilizing digital agricultural technologies such as autonomous rice transplanters, drone-based crop measurement, automatic water management systems, and pesticide application boats.

At the on-site event, a demonstration of an autonomous rice transplanter using GPS-based automatic steering devices was conducted.

The autonomous rice transplanter performs driving operations automatically, reducing operator fatigue and improving work precision, and is expected to help resolve the rural labor shortage problem.

Additionally, digital crop measurement technology using drones was also showcased.

This technology analyzes the growth status of rice and predicts crop conditions using footage captured by drones, enabling rapid understanding of overall field growth conditions and precision cultivation management based on data.

Meanwhile, the Icheon City Agricultural Technology Center introduced the results of verification tests for timely transplanting of premium Icheon rice to achieve the highest quality production. As concerns over quality deterioration due to high temperature ripening have grown in the face of recent persistent abnormal climate conditions, the Center emphasized the importance of practicing timely transplanting and called for farmer interest and participation.

At the event, a commitment ceremony for fertilizer reduction to cut production costs and conserve the environment was also held, during which participants pledged to actively implement appropriate fertilizer application based on soil testing and reduce fertilizer consumption.

Kim Dong-ho, Director of the Icheon City Agricultural Technology Center, stated, "Digital agricultural technology is an important solution capable of resolving rural aging and labor shortage issues," and added, "Going forward, we will strengthen field-focused technical guidance to expand the supply of smart agricultural technologies such as autonomous farm machinery and drones, enabling reduced labor while increasing productivity."