S. Korea, UAE to set agricultural cooperation committee in October

Aug 21, 2018, 10:22 am

By AsiaToday reporter Cho Sang-eun

The government will seek to restore relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by expanding cooperation in the agricultural sector.

South Korea's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said Monday that it will launch a joint agricultural cooperation committee with the UAE in Seoul in October to discuss ways to cooperate in agricultural sector.

"We are resuming to set an agricultural cooperation committee with the UAE after three years," said a senior official of the agriculture ministry said. "Director-level working groups will attend the committee to discuss smart farm technologies such as cooling and productivity improvement technologies, and exchange policies in general."

The committee is part of follow-up measures to the summit between President Moon Jae-in and UAE leaders held back in March where they agreed to further strengthen cooperation in agriculture.

The country's agriculture ministry is currently making arrangements with the UAE to confirm the number of attendees, discussion subjects and more.

The ministry had conducted a field survey for the establishment of the Korea-UAE agricultural cooperation plan from May 13 to 16.

The survey found that the UAE government is not only interested in smart farm technologies, but also South Korea's investment plan in food sector, human exchange between the two countries, and technology support for rice cultivation.

In particular, one of the sectors that were discussed the most was smart farming.

The agriculture ministry said in its "IoT-based smart farm cooperation plan between South Korea and UAE" that the UAE needs the following technologies in order to apply smart farms in the country: water conservation technology, cooling technology, greenhouse construction technology, desalination technology, and UAE-customized seeds.

The agriculture ministry believes that its water conservation, cooling, and desalination technologies can be applied to UAE based on the world's best greenhouse design and construction capability.

In particular, the plan is focused on IoT technology-oriented research cooperation.

Eventually, the ministry aims to promote IoT-based sensing and controlling technology cooperation project and desert smart farm project with UAE.

To this end, the ministry plans to actively instruct its core smart farm technologies, such as semiconductor-based optimized nutrient and moisture controlling technology, greenhouse design and construction technology, IoT sensor technology, water conservation technology, and cooling technology.

#S. Korea #UAE #agricultural cooperation committee