On April 22, 2020, with the participation of 10 people including General Manager of Daedong Industrial Co., Ltd. Yoo-Hyun Won, Dean of College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Suk-Ha Lee, and other associates, the signing ceremony of “MOU for a Joint Research on Precision Agriculture and Experts Training in the Field of Smart Farming” was held.

 As one of the largest total production companies for agricultural machinery in Korea, Daedong Industrial Co., Ltd. has been leading the globalization of Korean agricultural industry since its establishment in 1947. In particular, it has been pursuing active R&D projects with the field of precision agriculture, which is recognized as the core technology of the future agricultural industry as the growth engine for future.

 According to Daedong Industrial Co., Ltd., “To prepare for the country’s food crisis due to reduction and aging of global agricultural population and the increase in population, it is essential to expand the production quantity of produce. Thus, global agricultural machinery corporations are quickly expanding their businesses into precision agriculture that links 4th industrial technologies with agricultural machines to acquire and analyze agricultural data and present agricultural solutions in accordance with cultivating conditions such as growth and development of crops, soil, diseases and insect pest, etc.

 The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences of Seoul National University is a representative college in the agriculture circle, and the Biosystems Engineering department, in particular, possesses the highest level of technology in Asia in the fields of autonomous driving agricultural machine and precision agriculture. Furthermore, as it possesses research capacities such as research teams in various fields of agriculture and the best infrastructure, it has the optimal environment for a joint research with the relevant fields.

 Through this collaboration, Daedong Industrial Co., Ltd. is seeking to train experts for realizing the precision agriculture as well as to perform joint researches in the fields of autonomous driving agricultural machines and precision industry with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences of Seoul National University. Specifically, along with an internship program targeting graduate students of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, they are planning to perform a joint research on generation of autonomous driving pathway of agricultural machines and their algorithms that are essential to diagnose and work on the cultivating environment.

 General Manager Yoo-Hyun Won stated, “We presented an autonomous driving tractor last year so as to become a global leader in the field of precision agriculture, and we are reinforcing the autonomous driving technology researches on agricultural machines such as tractors and combine harvesters, etc.” He added, “This collaboration will become a good example of an academic/industry joint research in the aspect of securing the core technology having a business value for future agricultural technology as well as a project for training hands-on talents.”


Figure 1. commemorative photo of the MOU signing ceremony