Acta Horticulturae

Spotlight on Korea
Part 3: Vegetable Seed Industry in
the Republic of Korea
When World War II ended in 1945,
Korea was heavily dependent on
imported vegetable seeds. Now,
however, Korean seed companies
provide vegetable growers with high
quality seeds of their own cultivars
with excellent performance in most
of the important commodities.
Such development was possible due
largely to close collaboration
between the public and private sectors.
From the late 1940s to the
early 1960s, the National
Horticultural Research Institute
(NHRI) collected and tested many
open-pollinated varieties of vegetables
including radish, cabbage,
Chinese cabbage, tomato, pepper,
eggplant, cucumber, watermelon,
onion and Welsh onion.
Genetically purified seeds of selected
varieties were distributed to private seed
growers for use as parental stocks in the
production of certified seed for farmers.
In the meantime, NHRI focused on breeding
of uniform and high-yielding F1
hybrid cultivars through application of
self-incompatibility and male sterility
technology. In the early 1960s the resultant
parental lines of two Chinese cabbage,
one cabbage, and one onion hybrid
were handed over to private seed companies,
together with detailed descriptions
and technical information.
Since then public-sector research has limited
its breeding to vegetatively-propagated
crops and strategic areas in which
the private sectors hesitate to invest
because of high risks and low chances of
a return on investment. The public sector
also has allocated efforts for expansion of
genetic resources and technology development
related to breeding/seed-production.
High quality seeds for every one
Private breeders have been responsible
for the dvelopment of hybrid combinations
to better meet the diverse needs of
farmers and consumers. The results of
successful collaboration between the private
and public sectors are well manifested
in:
1) increased rate of marketable produce,
for example, from 60% of open-pollinated
varieties to 95% or more of
hybrid radishes
2) alleviated off-season shortages, for
example, Chinese cabbage from two
harvests per year to year-round supply
3) improved produce quality such as the
remarkably enhanced sweetness in the
leading cultivars of oriental melon and
watermelon
4) raised yield, for example, as shown
2,500 kg/ha of hybrid varieties of hot
pepper, compared to 1,000 kg/ha of
the open-pollinated heirloom vegetables.
In Korea, improved varieties have contributed
greatly to vegetable production
and consumption. For one, seasonal
shortage of high quality vegetables
has now been minimised. South
Korea is blocked to the north by North
Korea and to other directions by the
sea. Her land has only a small divergence
in latitude as well as altitude.
But consumers’ demand for vegetables
is year-round, especially for items used
for making Kimchi. Year-round supplies
of Chinese cabbage and radish
have now become stabilised largely
owing to the varieties surviving the
snowy winter at the southern part of
the peninsula for harvest in winter,
from January to March, and heat- and
disease-tolerant varieties well adapted
to highland production for harvest
during the hot summer months.
Seasonal limits have also been greatly
alleviated in most other commodities.
In Korea, there are two types of private
CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE • 13