(Jeonju=Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Jin-bang = The Rural Development Administration announced on the 1st that it is applying 'phenotypic image analysis technology', a key technology necessary for the transition to digital agriculture centered on automation and datafication, to various agricultural sites.
The application of phenotypic image analysis technology allows for the rapid and accurate analysis of the characteristics of a large number of seeds. While it takes a person 5 minutes to analyze 11 characteristics of a seed, such as size, color, shape, and surface texture, the phenotypic image analysis technology can do it in just 1 second.
In a breeding site, when analyzing 40,000 seeds, the use of phenotypic image analysis technology allows one person to do the work that four people used to do, reducing the time required from 40 days to 1 day.
This technology has been successfully applied to 62 types of commercial seeds, such as wheat, soybeans, corn, peppers, and watermelon, automating the analysis of their characteristics. The analysis accuracy is 97%, which is at the world's highest level, similar to that of advanced countries such as the United States and Europe.
It is being used in the development of the variety registration program at the National Institute of Crop Science, the differentiation of wheat and sorghum general seeds and mutant seeds at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, the automatic trait analysis service through the platform of a life information company, and the development of image capture devices for crops for private distribution by an industrial company.
In addition, the phenotypic image analysis technology is being applied in various fields such as the selection of high-sugar strawberries, the sorting of apples with bruises or blemishes, the counting of the number of mushroom caps of varying sizes, the confirmation of the size and number of kernels of corn, and the prediction of the harvest time of flowers and fruits.
The Rural Development Administration plans to develop a platform for digital breeding, including the acquisition of phenotypic data and analysis linked with supercomputers, for 65 major crops such as wheat, soybeans, corn, and peppers, which are in high demand from the private sector.
Kim Nam-jeong, Director of the Agricultural Life Resources Department at the Rural Development Administration, said, "This technology, which responds to the smart agriculture advancement policy, a national policy task of the new government, will bring about a digital revolution in agriculture. By utilizing this technology, we can solve the difficulties in the field and provide the driving force for pioneering future food."