“I can hardly begin to work without visiting websites ‘Hwanggumbol (golden field)’ and ‘Hwanggumyolmae (golden fruit)’ for quiz service on farming techniques even a day.”

“The farming operations command supporting system is really beneficial as the program helps us save time and manpower while ensuring promptness and accuracy of the control and command of farming processes.”

These are part of favourable customer feedback from the agricultural units which have introduced technical findings of the Agricultural Informatization Institute under the Academy of Agricultural Science, a general sci-tech research centre in the agricultural field, in recent years.

The institute has recently built databases of basic information and a database of e-maps of all fields across the country which will contribute to putting the agricultural sector on an IT basis.

The researchers established a growth simulation system based on IT, a technology for mathematically modelling physiological processes such as photosynthesis and respiration of crops and production and distribution of nutritive substances under local soil and weather conditions, and introduced it into national crop forecasting, grading of paddy and non-paddy fields, estimation of grain yield and others.

They also introduced a farming operations command support system and a field e-map management program for the control and command of farming processes by plots in each agricultural production unit across the country to contribute to the division of all agro-ecological zones and the planning and command of grain production on farms.

After establishing a system of disseminating agricultural science and technology through the national data communication network, the institute rapidly and correctly spreads new knowledge of agricultural science and technology and agro-technical measures to all farms. It also continues to study to perfect scientific and technological measures in order to provide more effective online quiz service on farming techniques and produces and disseminates multimedia presentations on "Knowledge of agricultural science and technology".

According to Pak Un Ryong, an official of the institute, it has so far distributed scores of multimedia presentations to inform the field workers of the measures and experience in each farming season by generalizing the experience gained in the course of agricultural production from the beginning of the year and the agricultural workers like them very much.

The institute also established a process for estimating crop growth by using various kinds of drones for agricultural purpose and developed a method of spraying agrochemicals by spraying drones, worked out a technical manual and distributed it across the country. It also developed a system for putting on an IT basis fruit farming which encompasses the registration of varieties, distribution and manuring of varieties, outbreak of blights and application of agricultural chemicals and fertilizer by informatizing the fruit farming process. And they developed agro-electronic products such as agrometeorological observer, plasma seed treatment machine and flowmeter for irrigation channel, contributing to agricultural production.