Covering the food & beverage industry, beauty, fashion, retail markets, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and related people and entities worldwide
New gov’t AI for farmers to hike earnings by 20%: RDA
Rural Development Administration (RDA) Administrator Lee Seung-don speaks during a press conference about its artificial intelligence project for the agricultural sector at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in Sejong, Wednesday. Courtesy of RDA
By Ko Dong-hwan
Public services to save costs, ease work strain
The Rural Development Administration (RDA) on Wednesday announced an ambitious plan to boost the incomes of the country’s 2 million farmers by 20 percent through cost reductions and increased sales, enabled by its upcoming artificial intelligence (AI)-driven comprehensive services.
The measure comes as the country has witnessed major crises across agricultural sectors, such as climate change, an aging workforce and population declines in rural communities.
To launch the new AI network and its related public services by 2030 for the benefit of rural regions, the research arm of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said it will expand its existing computing infrastructure by increasing cloud storage and introducing a new supercomputer.
RDA Administrator Lee Seung-don said during a press conference in Sejong that the new AI initiative now under development will not only raise earnings but also reduce the risk of agricultural accidents by 20 percent. He added the initiative will also reduce the conventional timelines for deployment of new technologies across the sector by 30 percent.
The RDA is currently working on a new smartphone app for farmers, according to Lee. The app will be tested by 1,000 farming households in 2026 and later for use by the general public.
The initiative will also introduce new troubleshooting AI platforms for farmers in horticulture and livestock businesses, including detailed information on pest control and climate condition forecasts.
Rural Development Administration (RDA) Vice Administrator Seo Hyo-won, third from left, visits a kiwi farm in Seogwipo, Jeju Island, as a farm manager explains the AI-assisted environmental controls, Nov. 5. Courtesy of RDA
The initiative will also reduce the risk of farming accidents through cooperation with the National Fire Agency, connecting automatically when emergency distress calls are issued by smart agricultural machinery. The joint network will be launched nationwide by 2029.
Authorities expect AI services to assist 1.2 million people with customized mental health assistance by 2030. There are also plans to convert derelict and abandoned rural buildings for community benefit, and to use AI to analyze and reduce the physical strain of agricultural labor.
To support these public services, Lee said the RDA will expand its online cloud storage by an additional 100 terabytes each year. The agency also plans to launch its third supercomputer by 2028, with a computing capacity eight times greater than the current one. The model is expected to expand to 15 petaflops by 2030, with each petaflop capable of one quadrillion floating-point operations per second.
Lee said the RDA will store 3 billion high-quality accumulated data points into a singular database by 2027 for public sharing and strengthen partnerships with schools including the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology to incubate manpower with “ambidexterity” in AI and agriculture.
“The AI era requires us to go beyond developing new technologies. It requires us to implement them practically in our lives and see fruitful results,” Lee said.
He added that the RDA has secured a 154 billion won ($105 million) budget for the initiative.