RDA to build 'Saemaeul' village in Southeast Asia

A researcher at a Korea Project in International Agriculture (KOPIA) center in Sri Lanka talks to workers on a strawberry farm. The Rural Development Administration (RDA) operates KOPIA centers in 20 developing countries to share its agricultural knowhow and knowledge. / Courtesy of RDA

By Lee Hyo-sik

The Rural Development Administration (RDA), the state-run agricultural research institute, is creating sustainable rural villages in Southeast Asia by introducing the Saemaeul Movement, or New Village Movement, which was operated in Korea in the 1960s and ‘70s.

The project, which began in January this year, will build Saemaeul villages in Cambodia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka over the next three years. This is the RDA’s latest efforts to share its agricultural knowhow and knowledge with developing nations, and improve the living conditions for rural villagers there.

The administration also seeks to nurture talented farmers and help boost their incomes, making rural villages in these countries more sustainable and self-reliant.

Korea Project on International Agriculture (KOPIA) centers in the three nations have been taking part in the scheme.

The RDA operates KOPIA centers in 20 countries (eight in Asia, six in Africa and six in South America) in its campaign to share its knowhow with the developing world.

Each center has nine RDA employees all year around, providing on-the-spot, tailor-made technical assistance, undertaking joint research activities with host countries and offering training programs. It first established KOPIA centers in five countries in 2009.

“Korea has long been a model for developing countries that seek to improve their rural villages. To more effectively assist them, we decided to build sustainable villages by practicing the Saemaeul Movement,” RDA Administrator Lee Yang-ho said. “We will also launch this village improvement project in seven other countries through 2017.”

In Cambodia, the administration has been transforming three villages into a high—income poultry farming complex.

“For the past two years, our KOPIA center taught villagers how to breed chickens effectively,” an RDA spokesman said. “We are helping 70 rural households breed, process and market chickens. We think their income will increase by 20 percent this year from 2014.”

In Sri Lanka, RDA has been creating an onion seeds production complex.

“We have selected 40 farms in three main onion production sites, which account for more than 90 percent of the Southeast Asian nation’s demand,” the spokesman said. “We have taught them knowhow on how to choose superior onion seeds, and more effectively produce and market them. This has helped the farmers increase production and earn higher income.”

In the Philippines, the RDA has been turning 70 farms in the country’s major rice cultivation areas into a strategic base for the production of high-quality rice seedlings.

“We will use the farms to produce superior, highly disease-resistant rice seedlings and distribute them to nearby rice farms,” he said. “This will enable the farmers to increase yields and generate larger income.”

The administration also plans to invite a group of villagers to Korea and educate them about the Saemaeul Movement so that they can lead rural environment improvement campaigns in their respective countries.