International Seminar on Restructuring and Strengthening Research &
Development for Agricultural Engineering
Research & Development for Agricultural Engineering
in Korea
Asia and Pacific Center for Agricultural Engineering, UNESCAP
Beijing, 27~28 April 2007
Kwang Jae CHOE Ph.D
Senior Researcher
National Institute of Agricultural Engineering
Rural Development Administration
SITUATION OF AGRICULTURE
Total land area : 9,965ha
Cultivated land : 1,824 thous. ha
paddy 61%,
upland 39%
Cultivated land per farm household : 1.43 ha
Import of agri. & livestock products : 9,758 mill. US$
Export of agri. & livestock products : 2,072 mill. US$
● Agricultural production
○ Major crops cultivated
- Grain : rice, soybean, barley
- Special crops : sesame, peanuts, mushroom
- Horticulture : red pepper, garlic, onion, flower
- Orchards : apple, pear, grape, orange, peach
○ Livestock
- Native cattle 1,819,000 heads
- dairy cattle 479,000 〃
- Pig 8,962000 〃
- Chicks 109,628,000 〃
● Farm household economy
(Thous. Won)
Year 1980 1990 2000 2005
Farm household
2,693 11,026 23,072 30,503
income (A)
Agricultural
1,755 6,264 10,897 11,815
income
Non-agricultural
938 4,762 12,175 18,687
and transferred
(34%) (43%) (52%) (61%)
income (B)
Farm household
339 4,734 20,207 27,210
debt
Rural wage
6,509 18,563 48,039 58,955
(male, Won/day)
Note : 1 US$ equals to around 1,000 Won
● Farm population and farm occupation (thous. %)
Total Farm Farm
Year
population population occupation
1980 38,124 10,827 (28.4) 3,723
1990 42,869 6,661 (15.5) 3,100
2000 47,008 4,032 (8.6) 2,203
2005 48,294 3,433 (7.1) 1,747
Situation of agricultural Engineering
● Ownership of major agricultural machinery (unit : ea.)
Items 1980 1990 2000 2005
Power tiller 289.8 751.2 939.2 819.6
Tractor 2.7 41.2 191.6 227.9
Rice transplanter 11.1 138.4 341.9 332.4
Reaper binder 13.7 55.6 72.3 60.0
Combine 1.2 43.6 86.9 86.8
Power cultivator - 50.7 378.8 382.8
Grain drier 1.6 17.7 55.6 70.4
Speed sprayer 1.2 4.9 28.9 38.8
Warm air heater - - 127.6 186.2
Agri. products drier - 59.4 164.5 184.1
※ Agricultural machinery yearbook KAMICO 1985, 1999, 2006
● Mechanized farm operations in crop production (2004)
Rice production Up-land crop production
Farm Mechanized Farm
Mechanized (%)
operation (%) operation
Land Land
99.1 97.4
preparation preparation
Planting &
Transplanting 98.4 2.5
transplanting
Vinyl
Harvesting 99.4 39.6
mulching
Pest
Drying 53.2 88.8
controlling
Pest
99.5 Harvesting 99.4
controlling
● Labor input hours in animal husbandry
(unit : h/head, year)
Broiler
Items Beef cattle Milking cow Growing pig Laying hen
chick
1995 106.5 202.8 15.1 94.2 20.7
2005 54.9 93.1 1.3 29.2 0.9
Recent situation in agricultural engineering
○ Reduced farming labor
- Farm labor has changed to aged farmers
- Rural society faced the shortage of farm labor
- Increase the farming cost
○ Overcoming int’l competition of products market (DDA, FTA)
○ Reduces agri. products’ post-harvest loss (around 25~30%)
○ Farmers' desire in farming
- Easy operation of machinery
- Safety operated machinery
- Suited to Korean farming condition
- High performance agricultural machinery
- Alternative energy resource development
○ Agricultural facilities' damages from natural
disasters
- Heavy rain, strong wind and heavy snow falls
○ Rising international crude oil price
- 23.8 $/barrel (2002) → $ 61.6 (2006)
○ Consumers' desire
- Quality agricultural products
- Safety agricultural products
- Low price of agricultural products
PROGRESS OF R&D FOR AGRI. ENGINEERING
○ In the 1980s
- Release the seasonal labor peak
- Power tiller implements
- Tractor implements
○ In the 1990s
- Glasshouses and PC houses
- Rice Processing Complex
- Machine vision use fruits grading
- Low temperature agri. products storage system
- Rice direct seeding
○ In the 2000s
- Environment friendly agricultural products
- Optimized fertilizing precision farming
- Products quality improvement processing
- Farm operation robots
RDA and Affiliated Institutes
○ Activities
- Research and development of agricultural
technologies
- Dissemination of agricultural technologies and
extension services
- Quality control of fertilizers, pesticides,
- Agricultural mechanization
- Training for rural development and home improvement.
Major R&D Activities of NIAE
Brief History
1962 Founded as Institute of Agricultural Engineering
and Utilization, RDA
1979 Established as NAMRI, RDA
Extended Functions to the Testing
1994 and Evaluation of Agricultural Machinery
Assigned as OECD Agricultural
1995 and Forestry Tractors Testing Institute
Appointment as Chief Secretary Institution
1999 of the ISO Agricultural Machinery
2004 National Institute of Agricultural Engineering
Functions
Research for promoting agricultural engineering
Technology Development for High Efficiency and Automization
in Agricultural Operation
Development, Improvement and Promoting Practical Use
in Agricultural Machinery
Mechanization Technology Development for Postharvest Management
Testing and evaluation of agricultural machin
Inspecting Performance and Safety of Agricultural Machinery
Testing OECD Tractors
Organization
Personnel : 117
((Researcher
Researcher 77
77,, Engineer 3, Technician 30, Administrator 7)
Fundamental Technology Engineering Division
Research and development of automation and
robotize of farm operation, agricultural products
safety evaluation technology, biological environment
measurement and information technology,
development of agricultural machinery utilization and
safety accident prevention technologies are the
major R&D area
Mechatronics Lab.
Research area are bio-mechatronics,
farming robot and farm automatic grafting
robot for fruit vegetable, environment control
system of bio-reactor for culturing tissues,
autonomous tractor and strawberry harvest
robot are under developed.
▲
▲Grafting
Grafting machine
machine which
which can
can
automatically
automatically carry
carry out
out the
the series
series
process
process such
such as
as cutting,
cutting, joining,
joining,
clipping,
clipping, discharging for grafting
discharging for grafting
gourd family vegetables
gourd family vegetables
▲Control technology which ◀automatic washing device
of vessel in plant tissue culture.
operates It is 2 types for triangle flask
farm vehicle monitoring used to laboratory and for
remote cylindrical vessel used to farm
image through internet
Agricultural products safety evaluation Lab.
This laboratory specializes evaluation technologies of agricultural products
safety. Main research areas are rapid detection of foodborne pathogens and
detection of chemical residues in agricultural products by using up-to-date
sensor technologies, such as biosensors, surface plasmon resonance sensor, and
sensor array. A fiber-optic biosensor for Salmonella detection has been
developed. Currently, we are developing an impedance biosensor for Salmonella
detection and a surface plasmon resonance sensor for pesticide detection
▼ Impedance biosensor for Salmonella
detection
▲ Fiber-optic biosensor for
Salmonella detection
Bio-environment & information Lab.
Conducts research on engineering technologies for precision agriculture to
address and manage the within- and inter-field variability and optimize
inputs on a point-by-point basis to improve profitability and to reduce
possible environmental damage using various state-of-the-art technologies
such as GPS, GIS, RS, and IT. On-going projects focus on soil sensors for
major physical and chemical properties for optimum soil management and a
production information acquisition system for agricultural traceability.
Utilization & Management Technology Lab.
Estimating long-term and short-term demands for agricultural machinery,
developing mechanization models by crops and farm sizes, determining
standard mechanized cultivation models, collecting and offering information
for agricultural machinery and investigating machinery utilization status, by
which the laboratory produces effective machinery utilization schemes and
produces agricultural mechanization policy materials.
▼ Publications for efficient and safe use
of agricultural machinery
▲To prevent accidents related to farm machinery,
analyzing the cause of accidents and publshing materials
for farmer training and government support
Agricultural Facilities & Resources
Engineering Division
Development for natural disaster damage
reduction technology for agricultural facilities,
agricultural energy saving technology and new
and regeneration energy utilization technology,
mechanization on bio-diesel raw material
production, water management and rural
environmental engineering technology.
Energy & Resources Engineering Lab.
Area researches on energy saving and efficient use, upgrading of energy
saving agricultural facilities and machinery, utilization technology for
alternative energy such as solar, geothermal and wind energy etc. and
recycling and energy conversion technology for biomass and livestock manure
etc. Recently conducted projects are automatic rolling shutter for greenhouse
thermal tunnel, orchid farm use dehumidifier, geothermal heat pump system
and greenhouse use coil tube heat exchanger for hot water heating.
▼Automatic rolling shutter for
opening and closing of
greenhouse thermal tunnel
▲Dehumidifier for producted
horticulture
Agricultural facilities & Disaster Prevention
engineering Lab.
Accomplishment of the Engineering research for mechanical analysis,
stress and strain analysis by FEM, durability test of agricultural
structures and machines, and the design of optimum environment control
system for greenhouses, livestock facilities by airflow analysis using
computational simulation methods.
▼ Technical research to prevent deep
snow disaster of agricultural structures
▲ The wind tunnel testing building for
airflow analysis of agricultural structures
Irrigation & Drainage Engineering Lab.
Area researches on irrigation and drainage for efficient water management,
design of environment friendly agricultural land infrastructure for land plots,
small streams, farm loads etc. Currently being conducted a soil moisture content
control technique in paddy field for paddy and upland rotational land use system,
automation of irrigation and drainage control of paddy field, and water leakage
decreasing through levee for paddy field.
▼ Automatic irrigation quality measuring
device with long term battery
▲ Development of diversion gate with
long term durability and ergomomic
design
Production Machinery Division
Development of integrated mechanization
on land preparation, planting and
transplanting, crop tending, harvesting
operation, and development of
automation system on greenhouse and
livestock.
Crop Cultivation Machinery Lab.
researches on the development of crops seeding, planting and transplanting
machinery. For the crops cultivation machinery, fertilizer application, vinyl and
paper mulching, weed controlling, pest controlling machinery. Recent activities
of development are rice direct seeder, garlic planter, vegetable transplanter for
chinese cabbage and red pepper, paper mulching device for rice transplanter.
▼ The partial tillage rice transplanter can
achieve partial tillage, rice transplanting and
fertilizing by one operation
▼ Weed control in rice field by paper
mulch rice transplanter
Harvesting Machinery Lab
Lab..
The lab. conducts the development of harvester for grain crops,
vegetables and fruit. The chinese cabbage harvester, spinach
harvester, root and bulb crops such as carrot, sweet potato, potato
and garlic harvesters are being developed
◀A garlic digger
mounted on tractor
that can harvest
seed garlic produced
from bulbils
or regular garlic bulb
A electric-powered Leek harvester that
cuts one row of leek and collects the
leek plants in the harvesting box ▶
Plant Production Factory Lab
The laboratory aims to develop machine technique for reducing cost
and labor in agricultural work and to study plant production factory
system to product a high quality horticultural crop all the seasons of
the year
▼Steam sterilization system for sterilizing
horticultural growing media made by farmers
▲Plant production factory system with
nutrient management automation system,
greenhouse control system, row-spacing
system
Livestock Machinery Lab.
Researches on the development of forage production equipment, automatic
control of animal raising system and animal manure treatment
machinery. Recent activities of development are slaughter animals'
transportation vehicle, internet network use chicks weight and environment
monitoring system, chicks' feeding and egg laying monitoring system. As the
environment friendly researches are animal liquid manure well fermentation
apparatus, animal manure sediment cleaning machine for liquid manure
container as well as mushroom substrate material composting - sterilization
machine for oyster mushroom growing.
▼The substrate material fermentation and sterilization
machine for oyster mushroom can reduce the drudgery on
mushroom substrate production farm operations from water
wetting work to fermentation and pasteurization.
▲ The improved slaughter pig's transportation
shelter adopted side air inlet with roof exhaust
system, and the shelter can reduce the pig's
stress and offensive odor.
Postharvest Engineering Div.
Researches on development and improvement
of technologies for physiology control,
maintaining and improving the commodity
value, management for freshness and safety
from harvest to consumers’ table.
Development of machines, equipments and
integrated system has been focused on pre-
cooling, cold storage, washing, cutting, drying,
sorting, packing,.
On -site Processing Machinery Lab.
On-site
Researches are development of horticultural products' on-site processing for
trimming, washing, peeling, slicing, drying to improve the agricultural
products' quality, cost saving and value adding.
▼ A system for cleaning fresh lettuces
leafy vegetable system
▲The calyx-remover for sliced dry
redpepper
Storage Engineering Lab
Lab..
Researches are controlled atmosphere storage, precision cold storage, pre-
storage treatment and automatic storage environment control for stable
supply of fresh, high-quality and safe agricultural products. Automatic
measuring device of rice constituent contents, environmental control
device for cold storage house using mobile phone were developed recently.
◀Paddy rice storage
dryer
▲Environmental control device for cold
storage house using mobile phone
Nondestructive Quality Evaluation Lab.
Researches are rapid internal and external quality evaluation of
agricultural products using the NIR spectroscopic analysis, image
processing, acoustic wave, NMR, X-ray. Nondestructive quality
evaluation system for apple, pear, peach, red pepper and tangerine
developed were commercialized. Recent activities are nondestructive
quality evaluation machine for water melon, portable real-time sensor
for quality evaluation of sugar content, maturity of fruits at orchard and
market.
▲Portable quality evaluator that can
measure the sugar content
▲ Nondestructive quality evaluation system
and maturity of fruits rapidly at
for watermelon
orchard and supermarket.
Packing & Distribution system Lab.
Researches one step mechanization system on Agricultural products Packaging Center
(APC) for safety distribution of agricultural products with fresh and high quality,
environment friendly packaging materials for agricultural products. Currently the one
step mechanization system that have functions of pre-processing, sorting, washing,
packaging for onion and cucumber etc. as well as the distribution and management
system using RFID mobile application technique were being developed.
▼ Nozzle type vacuum packaging machine
for peeled onion
▲ Full mechanization system for onion peeling,
washing and packaging
Machinery Utilization & Testing Division
Management of customer fitted agricultural machinery testing
& evaluation system, and development of agricultural
machinery safety level evaluation technology.
Tractor Testing Lab.
Tractor's testing laboratory is carrying out
the functional check of motor vehicles for
agricultural work that are tractors, power
tiller, cultivator, engine and etc. and is
developing the testing method and the
evaluating criterion of agricultural
machinery. Also, Research on part
standardization of agricultural machinery
is carried out. ▲ Overall PTO performance of agricultural
tractor such as power, torque, speed, fuel
consumption, and specific fuel
consumption is tested
T
Field Machinery Testing Lab.
Performance and safety aspects of Agricultural machinery for tillage,
harrowing, transplanting, pest control, harvest, transportation, livestock
production, green house, drying, grading, sorting etc. are tested.
▲ Performance test of combine ▲ Measurement of
harvester droplet coverage of
speed sprayer
T
Safety Testing Lab.
Test on machinery for post-harvest, green house and livestock
- Dryers, separators, agricultural heaters and coolers, etc.
- Forage harvesters, forage mixers, bailers, etc
▼ Executing the ROPS test and FOPS test for
evaluating the protective structure of agricultural
machines. Test is performed by the local test
code or international test code(OECD test code,
ISO standard, EU directive, ASAE standard.)
▲ Executing the turn-over test of off-road
vehicles. The inspection of turn-over angle
is performed by the local test method.
Management of Research Procedure
- Origin from researchers' project
Demand survey for - Government organization
research project - Requested from extension offices
- Agricultural related organizations
- Manufacturers
Needs from - Farmer's crop / animal study groups
related sector - Universities
- Consumers
Review Seminar for - Project proposal
research project - Presentation with power point
- Discussion within lab.
at Lab. → Division - Related researchers
Research project planning
- Consideration by
meeting by research
- Outside consultants, farmers
area (January)
Mid-term management - Consideration
meeting for research - Guidance of work direction
project (July) - Outside consultants, farmers
Final evaluation meeting
for the research project - Evaluation of project
- Outside consultants
(November)
● Type of Research Projects
1. Own research projects by NIAE
A. Ordinary research
- Laboratory conducting project under long term research
- The research implemented within the laboratory
- Chief of lab. has responsibility for the project.
B. Cooperative research within NIAE
- For on-site solving problem
- Short term research for the 3~5 years
- Cooperative project with the other laboratories
A. National Strategy Technology Development Project
in RDA
- Facing new circumstance in the country and abroad
- Special tasks oriented
- Practically use oriented
- Wide range subject's combining conclusion project
- Cooperative research among institutes involved in
- Basic science & technologies practical application
project
B. Regional specified technology development
- For local circumstance adaptable technology
- Local on-site task solving project
- Local technology's propagation project
- Development of local agricultural technology
- Supporting provincial RDAs and local specified
crop experiment station
C. Agricultural Specific Research
- Development of agricultural fundamental technology
- Application of agricultural fundamental technology
- Provided R&D budget for universities, government
institutes and private institutes.
D. International Cooperative research
- Cooperative research between overseas institutes
- International research institutes, universities
● Industrial Use of Technology Developed
Design & manufacture
- Research activities
of prototype by NIAE
Manufacture of practical - Order made semi-commercial
machine by NIAE machine
Farm adaptation study, - Practical use in farms
by County ATDC - More than one farmers
Improvement of machine - Improvement of machine,
by NIAE repeated testing in field
- Technology transfer to
Contracting technology
manufacturers
transfer
(Receive industrial properties
NIAE to manufacturers
fees)
Commercial production - Production of machinery
by manufacturers - Dissemination of machinery
Utilization of - Reduce the labor input
technologies for farmers - Helping farmers economy
● Management of R&D results
Research results consideration meeting in NIAE
Reviewing the research results in NIAE
Research results deliberation meeting in RDA
Proposal to relative Organization in RDA
● R&D characteristic by financial resource
○ NIAE : 1~10 years
- Individual researches
- Cooperative researches within NIAE and outside
○ Rural Development Administration : 1~5 years
- Cooperative researches among institutes under
RDA
○ Agricultural R&D Promotion Center : 1~3 years
- Cooperative researches among universities,
institutes and manufacturers
○ Korea Standard Association : 1 year
- Standardization of agricultural machinery parts
● Utilization of R&D Budget
○ Materials cost
- Experiment materials purchase
- Prototype manufacturing
○ Labor cost
- Assistance worker
- Temporary hired labor for conducting research
○ Travel cost
- Business travel for researchers,
- Local and overseas.
○ Stationery and printing cost
- Stationery
- Printing material cost.
Extension Service for technology developed
● Farm adaptation study for technology -1
○ Purpose
- Promotion of machine adaptability in field
- Improvement of machine performance
- Easiness of machine use, and machine durability
○ Financing : annually 280 mill. Won (NIAE + RDA budget)
● Farm adaptation study for technology - 2
○ Institutions involved
- NIAE : donation of machine, consulting
- ATDC (county agri. extension center) : guidance
- Farmers group : Crop Cultivation Group
○ Evaluation meeting
- Demonstration : machine use farm operation in the meeting
- Evaluation : questionnaire by participated farmers
- Farmer's opinion : suggestions on improvement factors
○ Machine use after evaluation m/t : more than one years
Impact Committed By R&D
● Utilization of R&D outcome
○ Technology transfer
- Technology transfer contract with manufacturers
- Commercialization of new machine
○ New farming technologies
- Deliver to extension office
- For farmer
○ Propose the mechanization policy
- Suggests to MAF
- Execution of agricultural mechanization policy
○ Information activities
- Mass media : news paper, TV, radio broadcasting
- Time : during the evaluation M/T and local demonstration
● Impact of R&D committed -1
○ Labor reduced easy farming
- Vegetable transplanter : 6.5 times higher than manual
- Stone picker : only 1/30 in comparison with the manual
※ Aged farmer can extending the working age
○ Save the agricultural production cost
- Vegetable transplanter : saved the cost by 85%
- Stone picker : saved the stone picking cost by 71%
※ Helping farmer's living economy
○ Environment friendly farming
- Pursues food safety and environmental conservation
- The products receives higher income : 50% higher price
※ Farm operations : paper mulching, power weeder etc.
● Impact of R&D committed -2
○ Hygienic agricultural products can adding value
- Dust, earth and pesticide chemical free
- Germ free fruit and vegetables storage more longer time
- Hygienic agri. products changes value added commodities
※ Washed apple receives higher price in market.
○ Thermal energy reducing will saving money
- Products drier's heat exchanger reduces energy by 14.3%
※ Reducible 17,500kL/yr in Korea, if the device adopted 30%
- Reducing CO2 gas emitting : mitigating global warming.
