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GREEN-seeds.com:
publications & research: articles
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Horticultural Research in the Republic of Korea
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Industry
 In 1995, population
in the agricultural sector was 4.84 million in 1.5 million farm households
and it is equivalent to 10.8% of the total population. Out of 9.93 million
ha of total land, 1,985 million ha was aerble and the land utilisation rate
per year was 108.1%. Due to the decreasing trend of farm households and
agricultural population, average farm size bas been showing an increasing
trend from 1.12 ha in 1986 to 1.32 ha in 1995. Out of the total average
farm income of 21,802 thousand Won or US$28,832, 48% is generated by farming.
Total planted area was
2,196,600 ha in 1995. Vegetables, fruit trees, and ornemental crops occupied
347 thousand, 172 thousand and 5 thousand ha, respectively. Among vegetables,
condiments occupies the largest land area: 92 for red pepper, 40 for garlic,
23 for Welsh onion, 16 for onion in thousand ha. Among leafy vegetables
which have 66,700 ha of planted land, Chinese cabbage is the most important
(46,500 ha), followed by lettuce (8,300 ha) spinach (8,200 ha) and cabbage
(6,600 ha). Other than radish (35,500 ha) and carrot (5,800 ha), there are
not much root vegetables grown in the country. Watermelon (45,200 ha) occupies
the largest planted area among cucurbit vegetables, followed by oriental
melon (12,000 ha) cucumber (8,500 ha), and squash and pumpkin (7,100 ha).
The planted area of potato, strawberry and tomato are 25,000 ha, 7,400 ha
and 3,900 ha, respectively. Apple (50,100 ha) occupies the largest orchard
area among fruit trees, and is followed by grapes (25,600 ha), persimmon
(25,000 ha), citrus crops (23,622 ha), oriental pear (15,700 ha), peach
(10,200 ha), plum (2,700 ha) and miscellaneous fruit trees. Among ornemental
crops, Chrysanthemum, rose, gypsophile, azalea, lily, carnation and orchid
are the most widely planted items in the descending order.
Research policy
Korean agriculture is
characterized by small scale and labor- and capital-intensiveness. High
land cost and high wage contribute to the high place of the agricultural
products. Under new international trade control system of WTO, Korea's agricultural
market is becoming more open and consequently competitiveness in quality
and price bas become an critical issue. To cope with the changing environment,
the government decided to increase investment in agriculture research mainly
through two ways; strengthening the research systems under the central and
provincial govemment and budgeting a new funding source of about 550 million
US dollars during 10 years from 1994. The new funding is channeled through
Agricultural Research Promotion Center mainly to support the joint project
among agricultural universities, plivate industries, and public research
organisations.
Horticultural crops
are considered to be a better source of rural income than other crops and
some of them are regarded as good items for exportation. Researches are
mostly aimed to save production cost and labor and to enhance the quality
and growers' income by all means available. One important task in horticultural
area is to defend the supply base of essentiel items in the peoples' diet
(such as hot pepper, garlic and onion), and that of major income sources
of horticultural farmers (such as mandarin oranges and apple). Another important
task is to develop new items for local and export market. Apple, oriental
pear, tomato, cucumber, rose and grafted cactus are regarded to have potentiel
for either or both markets.
Priority areas of research
in horticulture are as follows;
- Varietal improvement of horticulture] crops through conventional breeding
and biotechnology
- Technology improvement for year-round production or supply of major horticultural
produces
- Varietal improvement and production systems development for labor-saving
in farming
- Development of farming models specialized in selected items
- Seed treatment and processing technologies
- Consumption and market analyses of horticultural products
- Quality improvement through plant genetic modification, cultural methods
and post-harvest handling
- Greenhouse management technology for sustained optimum plant growth and
comfortable farming environment
- Propagation techniques for healthy seeding materials of vegetatively propagated
crops
- Germplasm collection, conservation, characterization, evaluation and D/B
construction of horticultural crops
- Farm management packages for integration of irrigation, fertilisation
and pest control
- Mechanization of farm management and farm-machinery development
- Technology for enhanced food safety and environment protection
- Development of new specialty crops from native and introduced plant species
- Encouragement of interdisciplinary projects among govemment, public and
private sectors
- Enhancement of international cooperation
Research systems
In the Republic of Korea,
governmental institutions under the umbrella of Rural Development Administration
have traditionally played almost exclusive role in the field of agricultural
research. It was due to the seriously limited amount of research fund flowed
to universities and too much teaching load borne by the faculty members.
The situation was not much different in horticulture although there are
departments of horticulture in about thirty universities. Only from 1994,
considerable amount of research fund from the Ministry of Agriculture and
Forestry has been provided for projects led or implemented by universities.
National Horticultural
Research Institute is the prime national organization in the field of horticulture.
In addition, Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology and three
regional agricultural experiment stations under RDA system are also involved
in horticultural research to certain extents. Each of nine provinces has
a horticulture section in its research bureau. Thirty-three commodite experiment
stations were established in the major production areas of the specific
crop commodities in three years' period of 1994-1996 throughout the country,
each of them is staffed with nine researchers and a few supporting personnel
and is to devote itself to research of a single crop or a target area of
a group of crops. Out of them twenty-three are mandated with horticultural
crops. There are quite a few private institutes belonging to seed companies.
Their activity is exclusively for developing commercial cultivars of major
vegetables and for local and export market.
National Horticultural Research Institute (NHRI)
NHRI is the prime national
institute responsable for strategic and applied research in the field of
horticulture. It has nine research divisions and a separate division for
general service in two campuses located in Suwon. The nine divisions are
Vegetable Breeding, Vegetable Cultivation, Fruit Tree Breeding, Fruit Tree
Cultivation, Floriculture 1 and II, Protected Horticulture, Horticultural
Crops Environment and Horticultural Produce Storage and Utilization. NHRI
also has three institutes, each of which is charged with a single fruit
crop. They are Apple Research Institute located in the central part of South
Korea, Oriental Pear Research Institute sited in southwestem part of the
peninsula, and Citrus Research Institute stationed in Cheiu island. In addition,
NHRI operates a research farm in Namhae county located in the southem coast
of the peninsula. This farm is mandated to produce basic seed potatoes and
research on kiwi fruit, yuzu and some ornemental crops.
Staff size of NHRI is
275 permanent employees plus around 550 temporary employees. About ten postdoctorate
fellows, some 200 research assistants and about 350 field laborers are included
in the second category. Among the regular staff (permanent employees), 190
are scientific staff, 68 are technical staff and the rest are administrative
staff. Sixty-four persons are allocated for vegetable research, 88 persons
for fruit crops, 35 for omamentals and 3 for viticulture and grape breeding.
Out of US$26,780,000 of 1995 budget, 46.5% or US$12,451 was spent for fruit
tree research, while 31% and 13.6% were spent for vegetables and ornamentals,
respectively. For viticulture and grape breeding 0.9% of the total budget
was allocated. In terms of subject areas, plant genetic improvement and
integrated production systems research received the highest attention with
the allocated budget of US$9,614,000 and US$9,311,000, respectively. For
propagation/nursery management and stress (biotic and abiotic), and post
harvest handling, US$1,303,000, US$3,259,000, and US$1,306,000 were allocated,
respectively. On economics/management/marketing related researches, US$1,984,000
or 7.4% of the total budget was spent.
Major research projects
in vegetable crops are:
- Germplasm collection, conservation, characterization and evaluation
- Breeding for major diseases in red pepper, watermelon, squash and Chinese
cabbage
- Breeding for once-over harvest of hot pepper
- Development of male sterile lines in radish, Chinese cabbage, and tomato
through conventional method and/or protoplast fusion
- Seed quality enhancement of gourd, hot pepper and carrot
- Breeding for quality improvement of oriental melon and watermelon
- Crossbreeding of garlic
- Development of molecular markers for resistance screening
- Improvement of grafting techniques in Cucurbits and tomato
- Greenhouse management for high yield, high quality and labor saving
- Utilization of plug seedling for mechanized farming
- Development of nutrient solution specialized for crops and seasons
- Structural improvement of greenhouse and efficient utilisation of greenhouse
materials
- Monitoring and utilisation of intact plant reaction to environment for
crop management in greenhouse
- Techniques for minimizing the heating cost of greenhouse and
- Improvement of soil environment for greenhouse crops.
Major research projects
in fruit trees including grape are:
- Germplasm collection, conservation, characterization and evaluation
- Collection and evaluation of spontaneous mutants in major fruit trees
- Breeding of apple, oriental pear, peach, and grapes for high quality and
extended supply period
- Breeding of spur-type of and dwarfing root stocks for major fruit crops
- Breeding for resistance to major diseases and insect pests
- Genetic studies on major characters and in vitro propagation
- Transformation of genes for high soluble solid content and that for fruiting
control
- Development of labor-saving orchard management technologies
- Control methods of major diseases, insect pests and physiological disorders
in major cultivars of apple, pear, peach and grape
- Studies on training methods of fruit trees
- Development of greenhouse production system for citruses, grape and oriental
pear
- Development of short-cycled high-density orchard in major fruit crops
- Canopy and density control of efficient utilisation of sun light in major
fruit crops
- Utilization of virus-free seedling for improved quality and productivite
in grape, apple and oriental pear
- Development of technology for rapid cultivar-substitution in old orchards
of apple and pear
- Polyploid utilisation for varietal improvement, and
- Soil management in orchards
Major research projects
in ornemental crops are:
- Breeding of chrysanthemum, carnation, gladiolus, lily, grafted cactus,
orchids, rose, hibiscus, petunia and pansy
- In vitro rapid multiplication of lily and orchids
- Storage of seed bulbs and roots of major vegetatively propagated ornamentals
- Box culture technology of lilies
- Development of new ornemental crops from native and introduced species
- Development of hydroponics of rose and other cut flower crops
- Effect of sub-irrigation methods for poinsetia and other ornemental crops
- Development of production system for cut flower of orchids, and
- Control of flowering time in major ornamentals
In the field of horticultural
crops environment, major research projects are:
- Isolation, purification and application of attenuated virus
- Production of viral anti-sera and development of diagnosis kit for viral
diseases
- Development of forecasting system for major diseases and insects
- Development and application of natural enemies for selected diseases and
insect pests
- Survey of major diseases and insect pests occurrence in major horticultural
crops
- Monitoring injury from consecutive mono-cropping and development of healthy
soil management practices
- Fertilizer level studies to establish recon-imendations to growers in
different soil types, and
- Effect of fermented and other organic fertilizers
In the field of storage
and utilisation of horticultural produces, major research projects are:
- Storage and shipping method development for prolongea freshness of perishable
vegetables including radish, and cherry tomato
- Development of new processed food from melon, radish and other vegetables
- Storage method improvement of apple and oriental pear for export markets
- Packing method improvement of strawberry for export markets
- Utilization of ethylene-releasing agent for after-ripening of fruits
- Control of post harvest diseases and disorders of major fruits, cut flowers
and cucurbit vegetables
- Development of fermented food from apple, persimmon, plum and mandarin
oranges
- Construction of database of traditional technical knowhows in agriculture.
Regional Agricultural Experiment Stations
There are four regional agricultural experiment stations under Rural Development
Administration. They are Honam AES responsable for southwest region, Youngnam
AES for southeastem region, Alpine AES for highland agriculture and Cheju
AES for Cheju island. Except for Honam AES, each of the other three RAESs
have a division for horticultural crops research. As noticed from the narnes
of the stations, their research scope is focused more on the applied aspect
or region specific problem areas. For example, Youngnam AES focuses on vegetable
production technologies in plastic film houses and varietal improvement
of the crops grown in the protective structures, taking advantage of warm
temperature and abundant sunshine of the located area. Alpine AES located
at the altitude of 800m from sea level focuses on the summer production
of vegetables and flowers, and seed potato production to support the highland
horticulture taking advantage of cool summer weather and low aphid population
in the area. Cheju AES takes care of the horticultural industry of the island,
of which major crops are early onion, overwintering cabbages, potato and
carrot, and many warm season ornamentals including orchids.
Provincial Rural Development Administrations
Each of nine provinces bas its own rural development administration which
consists of research bureau and extension bureau. In research bureau, mostly
there are divisions for farm management, field crops, horticultural crops
and crops environment. In the horticulture divisions, there are sections
for vegetables, fruit trees and ornamentals and each section mostly comprises
3 to 6 researchers, depending upon the relative importance of among the
three sectors and of total horticulture in relation to other crops in the
specific provinces. Their research projects are in general on improvement
of cultural practices of the crops important in the provinces. There are
also some limited amount of activities related to varietal test and plant
genetic improvement on selected crops. In terms of budget size, they cover
19.1% of the total budget for horticultural research, except for inflow
from the Agricultural Research Promotion Center.
Commodity experiment stations
As mentioned in the
policy section, recently Korean government has implemented a policy to strengthen
the research capability of the RDA system. As a part of the policy, provincial
governments were encouraged to establish experiment stations to work on
a single selected crop. Central govemment provided financial support for
purchasing land and basic equipments and for construction of the buildings
for the stations. Around the country, a total of thirty-three stations were
established in major production areas of the respective crop commodities
in the period of 1994-1996. Among them, 23 are for horticultural crops.
They are Mushroom Experiment Station in Kwangju, Cactus ES in Koyang of
Kyonggi Province, Native Edible Herbs ES in Pyongchang, Root Vegetables
ES in Kangnung of Kangwon Province, Protected Grape ES in Okchon, Garlic
ES in Tanyang, and Greenhouse Vegetables ES in Umsong of Chungbuk Province,
Strawberry ES in Nonsan, Tomato ES in Puyo, Chrysanthemum ES in Yesan, Lily
ES in Taean of Chungnam Province, Highland Floriculture ES in Namwon, Watermelon
ES in Kochang of Chonbuk Province, Warm Weather Fruit Crop ES in Haenam,
Yuzu ES in Kohung, Cucumber ES in Kurye of Chonnam Province, Fruiting Vegetables
ES in Songju, Peach ES in Chongdo, Astringent Persimmon ES in Sangju, Red
Pepper ES in Yongyang of Kyongbuk Province, Onion ES in Changnyong, Non-astringent
Persimmon ES in Kimhae and Greenhouse Floriculture ES in Changwon of Kyongnam
Province.
These stations are mostly
staffed with 9 researchers and a few technical or supporting employees.
They have been busy with deciding the site, constructing facilities and
recruiting staff. Research scope may cover from breeding to cultivation
aspects and post harvest handling, processing and marketing. Mostly they
have conducted surveys on the major production areas of the mandated crop
commodities to identify the problem areas to be tackled by their research
in the future. They also have collected germplasm including wild types,
related species and leading varieties predominant among local as well as
foreign growers.
Private breeding stations
In Korea there are some
fifty seed companies. Among them about ten companies have breeding station
actively working on varietal improvement. Traditionally they have worked
exclusively on vegetable crops, because field crops have been under the
responsibility of government institution in both varietal improvement and
seed production/distribution. They have been very successful in developing
superior hybrid varieties of major vegetable crops such as hot pepper, Chinese
cabbage, radish and onion by exploitation of genetic sterility and/or self
incompatibilite depending upon the crops. They have developed well-perfon-ning
hybrids of waten-nelon, oriental melon, cucumber and squash. They have achieved
partial success in practical utilisation of male sterility in carrot and
onions. Korean seeds are, however, not competitive in crops such as tomato,
common cabbage, muskmelon, early maturing onions, carrot, spinach and lettuce.
That is due to small local market size discouraging investment (in such
cases as tomato, common cabbage and musk melon), poor rouging in parental
seed multiplication (in case of carrot), or unfavorable weather conditions
for breeding and/or seed production (in such cases as carrot, onion, spinach
and lettuce). In addition to the efforts to maintain the varietal superiority
in the traditional vegetables, private seed companies allocate more resources
to improve the competitiveness in this group of crops. For this purpose
they are trying hard to enhance varietal performance and seed production
efficience in the sites of breeding and seed production located either locally
or abroad.
As mentioned above,
private breeding stations have largely depended upon conventional methods
such as male sterility and self incompatibilite in developing and producing
hybrid seed. But they have now become more interested in molecular methods
as a new and complementary breeding tool. Breeding have greatly contributed
to diversification of production/supply season, improvement of land productivite
and enhancement of quality of vegetables in Korea. But seed companies are
now paying more attention to disease resistance of the crops, of which the
size of international market is large. Major private breeding stations are
actively participating in joint research projects, together with universities
and public research institutes, which are funded by the Agricultural Research
Promotion Center and Rural Development Administration.
Universities
There are some thirty
universite departments solely of horticulture or of horticulture or combined
with other related scientific fields throughout the country. But the faculty
members were not in general very active in research due to the limited amount
of research fund and heavy teaching load. The limited amount of fund was
provided from RDA, Science and Technology Promotion Foundation, Ministry
of Education, and Ministry of Science and Technology. However, the situation
has now become totally different since the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
began funding the research through the Agricultural Research Promotion Center.
As already mentioned above, ARPC annually spend about 55 million US$ to
support research and development projects in the field of agriculture, forestry
and fishery. Since most of the projects are jointly constructed among universities,
public institutes and private industries, it is not easy to correctly estimate
how much is spent for the activities in horticultural area in the universities.
It may yet be roughly said that about a quarter of the total budget is spent
for researches in horticulture and that over two thirds of the horticulture
portion is to support the research conducted in the universities. Consequently,
capable university laboratories in the field of horticulture have become
fully activated to conduct such projects.
Research projects of
universities now cover practically all the national priority areas listed
in the policy section of this article. Their activities are naturally more
basic problem-oriented. Many faculty members are leading the wide-scoped
large projects for solving specific problem areas. They now cooperate with
specialists not only in agriculture, but also in other disciplines such
as electronics and mechanical sciences to exploit all the technologies and
knowledge available.
Publications
Tables 1-2 and 2-1 to
2-3 provide some information conceming publication in the field of horticulture.
Horticultural subjects are mostly published in three publications (Abstract,
Horticulture World, and the Journal) of the Korean Society for Horticultural
Science. Quite many papers are published in the Journals of Korean Societies
for Breeding, Plant Pathology, Applied Entomology, Soil and Fertilizer etc.
Many research results are presented and published through crop research
group meeting and their publications. Among them are Korea Capsicum Research
Cooperative, Korea Fruit Tree ResearchAssociation, Korea Floriculture Research
Association and Korea Research Society for Protected Horticulture.
In tenns of annual number
of publications per person, central institutions were found to be more productive
than provincial institutes in the RDA system. This seems to be due partly
to practically oriented nature of the projects and less experience of staff
members of the provincial institutes. Apparently, seed companies are not
very much interested in publishing their results. In the year of 1996, a
total of 523 papers were presented in two meetings of the Korean Society
for Horticultural Science. Out of them, 217 papers were on vegetables, while
118 and 188 papers were on fruit trees and ornamentals, respectively. Cultural
techniques were the most popular issues among presentations, followed by
breeding related subjects, propagation-nursery, postharvest and pests and
disorders. Number of presented papers in 1996 was five times that in 1986.
Such increase may be an indicator of the strengthened research capability
of horticulture in Korea in the last decade.
Genetic resources
Table 6 shows the number of germplasm accessions of important horticultural
crops, Among vegetable crops, hot pepper, Chinese cabbage, perilla, onion,
waten-nelon, and melon are over one thousand. Apple, oriental pear, peach
and grape are the fruit crops whose germplasm collection is larger than
other crops. Among omamentals, tulip, rose, Chlorodendrom and chrysanthemum
have the largest collection. The Korean Genebank is responsable for storing
the seed-propagated materials, while crop research institutes are charged
with keeping the vegetative materials. In addition, crop research institutes
maintain, in their working collection, a large number of breeding lines
or accessions of their interested crops. The Genebank is cooperating with
many other national and international genebanks for germplasm exchange and
joint expedition. They also maintain close relationship with many commodite
research institutes including NHRI and some private institutes for characterization,
evaluation and multiplication of the genetic resources. In general, amount
of seed per accession, and gerrninability and characterization/evaluation
data are far below the satisfactory or standard level. Therefore, coordinated
activities should be emphasized in the coming years.
Partnership
As frequently mentioned
above many projects are jointly planned and implemented among scientiste
of diverse disciplines belonging to universities, public research institutes
and private industries. Private industry often contributes a part of the
research fund, mostly in kind, and enjoys a priority in utilisation of the
results produced from the projects. RDA institutions have advisory committees
consisting of universite professons, growers and specialists from piivate
industries. The committee is officially invited to meetings for planning
and review. The members are also informally contacted by different levels
of research staff for advices on specific issues. RDA institutions also
have feedback system with extension people and policy makers in the Ministry
of Agriculture and Forestry.
Another important type
of partnership is cooperation with international agricultural institutes
such as the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center in Taiwan, International
Atomic Energy Agency in Austria, and International Potato Center in Peru.
RDA-seconded scientiste are positioned in three international research centers
and they liaison the cooperative activities between Korea and the respective
centers. RDA's cooperation is extended to advanced laboratories in the United
States, japan and Europe depending upon the research subjects. RDA offers
positions of adjunct researcher to the specialist in the universities and
industries. They are allowed to join RDA staff in all the activities and
share the results. RDA also invites distinguished scientiste from other
countries to become honorary research fellows. Honorary research fellows
are funded to make short visits to Korea to give lectures, seminars and
implementation of joint projects. Many universities have signed agreements
with foreign counterparts on exchange of faculty members and students, and
joint activities including research areas.
© WCHR
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