While the food crisis is emerging as a pressing global challenge, the forum aims to overview the current status of food supply at home and abroad, discuss strategies for addressing food security issues and future-oriented national policies and suggest directions for technology development.

The Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP, president Byung-Seon Jeong) held the 145th KISTEP Wednesday Forum on May 11 (Wednesday) under the theme of ‘Current Status of Food Supply and Technology Strategy.’

In his opening speech, Byung-Seon Jeong, president of KISTEP, stressed the need to devise STI strategies such as utilizing intelligent farms, training talents focusing on agriculture, IT, and big data, improving productivity by technology transfer. promoting eco-friendly smart agriculture, and investing in infrastructure. He then said, “I hope today’s Wednesday Forum would provide an opportunity to investigate the current status of domestic agricultural technology to overcome the food crisis and prepare technology strategies.”

▲Byung-Seon Jeong, President of KISTEP

In the presentation, Sang Soo Kwak, senior researcher at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, said, “The major issues facing the global food crisis are the drought in the granary due to climate change, the shorfall of human resources and difficulties in food sowing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the escalation of the global food crisis due to the Ukraine crisis, and the shortage of rural manpower due to the super-aged society.” Furthermore, he emphsized, “This is an important time to recognize and prepare for food supply issues while establishing and implementing related food policies and R&D strategies.”

Kwak then explained the cases of overseas food security policies and added, “In Japan, the grain self-reliance rate is more than 100%. The food self-sufficiency rate is also increasing, so the food security crisis response system is well established.” He also said, “China is pursuing a clear and consistent policy by maintaining the grain self-sufficiency rate above 95% as of 2020 through the mid-to-long-term national food security plan.”

▲Dr. Sang Soo Kwak, Senior Researcher from KRIBB

Kwak stressed the need to overcome the food crisis by ▲ increasing the food self-sufficiency rate, ▲ reducing greenhouse gas, ▲ digital transformation of agriculture, ▲ expanding supply chain and stockpiling and establishing crisis response system, and ▲ overcoming food crisis by science and technology innovation.

Finally, Kwak suggested the national strategies for developing innovative technology for agriculture such as ▲ evaluating agricultural and food security, ▲ R&D strategies supported by national agricultural and food policies, ▲ essential advanced agricultural biotechnology, and ▲ active communications between stakeholders on agricultural technology such as GMOs. In addition, he emphasized the importance of ▲ establishing a national mid-to-long-term R&D roadmap for agricultural innovation policies, ▲ actively accepting, developing, and utilizing agricultural innovation technology, ▲ establishing strategies for overseas rural technology, and ▲ building a grain storage system.