AI to fuel Korea's agricultural assistance for developing nations

Eco-domes inside the Rural Development Administration’s (RDA) Climate Change Research Center in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, are used to grow small-scale rice paddies in precisely controlled temperatures, humidity and sunlight, to study how climate change affects crops. RDA completed construction of the research center in November last year. Courtesy of RDA

JEONJU, North Jeolla Province — Korea will step up assistance for developing countries in the agricultural sector, leveraging a state-led initiative to apply artificial intelligence (AI) to farming technologies, data-driven advisory services and the development of climate-resilient crops, according to the head of the nation’s top agricultural research institute.

Lee Seung-don, administrator of the Rural Development Administration (RDA) under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said on Thursday the agency’s official development assistance (ODA) projects for countries with poor self-reliant infrastructures and labor shortages will continue to expand.

Lee said the agency’s multilateral Food and Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (FACI) will expand from three regional groups — Asia, Africa, and Central and South America — to five by 2028, adding the Caribbean and South Pacific. The expansion will bring the number of partner countries to around 100 across the five regions, with costs covered by the Korean government’s budget.

Lee’s remarks come as the RDA is strengthening its strategy to integrate AI into agriculture, a key national priority under the Lee Jae Myung administration, aimed at promoting smarter farming at home. The RDA chief expressed confidence in the plan, citing the agency’s experience in ODA programs dating back to 2009, which have helped partner countries cultivate field crops developed by the agency and tailored to local climate and land conditions.

“Our ODA projects have recently delivered notable results in Mongolia, where we successfully introduced locally adapted rice varieties and achieved harvests,” Lee said at a press conference at RDA headquarters in Jeonju. “Mongolia sought our assistance in 2023 to strengthen food security after similar efforts by other countries, including Japan, failed. We developed rice seeds suited to local soil conditions and introduced indoor farming techniques to cope with the cold climate. We are now prepared to further expand our ODA programs there.”

Rural Development Adminstration (RDA) Administrator Lee Seung-don speaks during a press conference at the agency's headquarters in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, Thursday. Courtesy of RDA

The RDA’s ODA businesses include bilateral and multilateral initiatives. Lee said that while the former focuses on meeting a partner country’s specific needs, the latter is more interested in resolving globally shared issues across different regions.

“I believe our ODA budget will increase further this year,” Lee said.

“We currently operate about 20 regional offices worldwide overseeing the Korea Partnership for Innovation of Agriculture projects, with a combined budget of less than 35 billion won ($24 million), which is relatively modest given their global scope. This is because the programs focus on demonstrating technical assistance rather than building costly infrastructure. Since President Lee praised our ODA initiatives during a Cabinet meeting in December, I do not expect any budget cuts this year.”

The RDA is developing new agentic and physical AI models to expand automation across labor-intensive farming operations. One of the agency’s key goals is to launch open AI platforms accessible to all users, allowing farmers to ask millions of questions on topics such as weather forecasting, crop diagnostics and cost-efficient management, and receive highly accurate, data-driven answers.

The agency projects that the AI integration initiative will boost farm household income by 20 percent, reduce safety risks for farmers by 20 percent, and shorten the timeline from technology development to field deployment by 30 percent.