ANALYSIS RDA fights poverty, food scarcity globally

By Kim Jae-heun

While Korean pop cultural products are gaining fans around the world, Korean farming technology is also enhancing national prestige thanks to the efforts of Korea's Rural Development Administration (RDA) to contribute to the development of agriculture in developing countries in Asia, South America and Africa.

Korea's advances in agriculture have made its “technology” world-class. In 2009, the country joined the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD and transitioned from being an aid recipient to an aid donor.

The governmental research and development institute receives many requests from developing countries to teach them advanced farming practices and the RDA has played the role of a “tow truck” to improve these nations' agriculture over the last decade.

The RDA promotes win-win cooperation projects with 48 countries that focus mainly on official development assistance (ODA) through agricultural science and technology such as fostering new crops and agricultural techniques.

One glowing example is the Korea Program for International Cooperation in Agricultural Technology (KOPIA), through which the R&D administration helped deploy agricultural know-how to developing countries with the premise of increasing farmers' incomes. The RDA currently operates KOPIA centers in 22 countries in Asia, Central and South America, and Africa.

KOPIA proceeds in three stages in accordance with a developing countries' request: developing farming technology customized to the region, observing the results and providing assistance in the regional implementation of the program.

KOPIA garners great success in Ecuador

KOPIA's center in Ecuador started tissue-culturing seed potatoes in 2013 to contribute to the food supply in the country. Since 2019, the program has been adopted in model villages and the overall output of potatoes increased 26 percent.

In Ecuador, KOPIA received the Global Compact Award from the United Nations last year for its contribution to eradicating poverty in the country.

The R&D institute established the “3-FACI” (Food and Agriculture Cooperation Initiative), a network of international groups operating in 45 countries that works to solve problems in three key areas: food scarcity, climate change and improving agricultural productivity.

The RDA first launched the Asian Food and Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (AFACI) in November 2009, and 13 countries have since joined the program, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Mongolia and Nepal.

The following year, Senegal, Ghana, Kenya and Zambia were among the 20 African countries that joined the Korea-Africa Food & Agriculture Cooperation Imitative (KAFACI), which aimed to improve food production and achieve sustainable agriculture.

The Korea-Latin America Food & Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (KoLFACI) was introduced in September 2014 to share Korea's knowledge and experience in agricultural technology. There are 13 member countries implementing numerous projects conducted by the multilateral cooperation body including Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador.

The Africa Rice Development Partnership project promoted by KAFACI serves as a breakthrough in solving the food problem in Africa.

Across Africa, the rice consumption rate has been increasing by 4 percent every year. However, 21 out of 39 rice-producing countries there have a 50 percent to 90 percent dependency on imported rice.

The goal was to increase rice productivity by 25 percent from 2016 to 2025 through developing over 55 rice varieties and utilizing Korean rice variants in the process.

So far, Senegal and Malawi have each grown two unique varieties, and a fifth variety has been grown in Mali. Eight more varieties are planned for registration this year in Uganda, Kenya and Ghana.

Specifically, KAFACI introduced two new rice types in Senegal ― “ISRIZ-6” and “ISRIZ-7” ― developed from Korean rice originating in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province and Taebaek in Gangwon Province. The ISRIZ type can potentially yield 7.2 to 7.5 tons of rice per hectare, which is more than double the amount of Senegal's traditional Sahel rice.

Local farmers, sellers and consumers are all satisfied with ISRIZ rice, both for its high quality and quantity of production. The locally developed variety will be expanded and distributed across the country through a KOPIA center there.

This year, the RDA will received 81 billion won to spend on its R&D projects in 45 member countries and on seven international organizations. The governmental institute will provide 36 billion won to AFACI, 30 billion won for KAFACI and 15 billion won to KoLFACI.

Recently, it has signed memoranda of understanding with ministers and vice ministers of member countries to establish consultative bodies for agricultural technology transfers in each region.

The RDA is also fostering young experts to beef up capacity in the scientific and technological fields for sustainable cooperation with its partners. The institute currently runs 29 training programs in each technology sector with a total of 235 participants.

There are two programs: short-term (five days) and long-term (five to 10 months). The former aims to teach students techniques in 26 areas such as crop cultivation and breeding. The latter focuses on three fields, developing new rice types and processing farm products.

“Korean agriculture is small but strong. As a representative of the country's farming R&D institutions, the RDA will make efforts to globalize Korean agricultural technology to have a positive influence on the international community's sustainable development,” RDA Chief Hur Tae-woong said.

Korea is set to host the P4G Summit on May 30 and 31. The virtual summit of global leaders will deal with climate change and sustainable development issues.