%E1%84%80%E1%85%B5%E1%86%B7%E1%84%89%E1%85%AE%E1%86%AB%E1%84%80%E1%85%AF%E1%86%AB%20%E1%84%92%E1%85%A1%E1%86%AB%E1%84%83%E1%85%A9%E1%86%BC%E1%84%83%E1%85%A2%20%E1%84%89%E1%85%A5%E1%86%A8%E1%84%8C%E1%85%AA%E1%84%80%E1%85%AD%E1%84%89%E1%85%AE(2).jpg)
- Dr. Soon-kwon Kim, Chair Professor of Handong Global University has disseminated honey maize varieties through the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affair to ten ASEAN countries.
January 16 to 18, 2017, 18 researchers from ten Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) except for Singapore visited HGU. These nations have no arable land for farming. They received eco-friendly maize breeding training by visiting the Graduate School of International Development Cooperation of Handong Global University, the Handong International Maize Research Institute, and the Unification Maize Research Center of the International Corn Foundation.
Chair Professor Dr. Soon-kwon Kim has been promoting dissemination of downy mildew resistant maize varieties that were jointly developed with the International Corn Foundation, Handong Global University, and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kingdom of starting last November. Downy mildew is one of the serious problems in South Asia regions. The fund for the project is 130,000 dollars from ASEAN and the International Corn Foundation. The variety is DMT-Sugar, the first variety that was developed after twelve years of research efforts. This is an eco-friendly maize variety adaptable to tropical areas.
A steamed ear of corn produced by the farmers of Pohang was given to each participant. The visitors practiced vacuum packaging to bring the sample to their country. In addition, they visited the Saemaul Movement birthplace, Memorial Hall, located at Gigye-myeon, Bukgu, Pohang.
After three days of training in Korea, they returned to the ICF Bio Center, Cambodia with Dr. Kim. They learned practical skills in tropical corn breeding at on-site farms and received conventional corn varieties for tropical areas. With the support of the Ministry of Administration the participants will disseminate five kilograms of honey corn, waxy corn, and feed corn.
Dr. Kim’s research team plans to provide training for honey corn, waxy corn, and feed corn by visiting the ASEAN countries. Dr. Kim is planning to increase the health of children, the elderly, and pregnant women by producing honey corn that can be eaten fresh and contains 15% sugar. Another effect will be enhancing farmers’ income.
Dr. Kim successfully completed breeding super corn, bio corn, and honey corn in North East China. He is leading the Korean wave of Korean corn by breeding new corn varieties that are grown in cold areas in Mongolia and Russia. Regrettably, the corn breeding project for Southeast African which was implemented for three years in Zimbabwe, is now temporally suspended due to the lack of research funds.
