A sheet of plastic film boosted Guatemala's potato yields by 22%

Results of Korean agricultural technology

Technology | Result Seedling cultivation | Vegetable output up more than 20% Plastic mulching | Potato productivity up 21.9% Blue sticky trap | Pest damage down about 70% Seeder | 10 workers, 8 hours → 1 worker, 1 hour Water-collection facility | Improved drought resilience

Korean agricultural technology introduced in Guatemala — a Central American country battered by severe drought and poverty — has lifted local farm productivity by more than 20%, the Rural Development Administration said. Shifting from direct seeding to seedling-based cultivation, and adding plastic mulching, pest control and rainwater storage, has improved both drought resilience and farm incomes, the agency said.

The Rural Development Administration said Wednesday that its overseas agricultural technology development project, known as KOPIA, has disseminated locally tailored farming techniques in Guatemala, raising productivity for potatoes and frijoles — a variety of kidney bean — by more than 20% each.

Guatemala's eastern dry corridor receives less than 500 millimeters of rainfall a year on average, making it one of the country's most drought-prone regions. Recurring droughts and pest outbreaks driven by climate change, combined with a poverty rate exceeding half the population, have long made stable food production difficult there.

The most significant change involved vegetable cultivation methods. Guatemalan farmers had traditionally sown seeds directly in the field, but KOPIA introduced seedling technology — growing young plants in trays before transplanting them. Seedlings with well-developed root systems establish faster and withstand drought better, boosting overall productivity, the Rural Development Administration said.

To support the shift, the agency installed a commercial seedling facility capable of producing 120,000 vegetable seedlings a year at an agricultural extension office in Amatitlán, and set up 140 small rain-sheltered seedling greenhouses at the village level so farmers could raise their own seedlings.

Results on the ground were clear. Farmers in the Dos Cerros demonstration village reported that tomato and cucumber output rose by more than 20% after seedling cultivation was introduced.

For potato farming, the project applied Korean-style plastic mulching — covering raised beds with plastic film to retain soil moisture and suppress weeds. Combined with support for upgrading seed potato storage facilities and tissue-culture laboratories, potato productivity climbed from 11.6 metric tons per hectare to 14.1 metric tons, a gain of 21.9%.

Korean technology was also applied to frijol cultivation. Installing blue sticky traps — which exploit thrips' attraction to the color blue — cut pest damage by about 70%. Introducing mechanical seeders sharply reduced labor: a task that previously required 10 workers and eight hours by hand could be completed by one person in one hour with a single seeder.

As a result, frijol productivity rose from 1.01 metric tons per hectare to 1.22 metric tons, an increase of 20.3%.

In 15 villages with severe drought exposure, the Rural Development Administration also provided small rainwater-collection facilities along with sprinklers and other irrigation equipment, allowing farmers to store water during heavy rains and use it for agriculture during the dry season.

"Our goal is to raise productivity and farm incomes for potatoes, frijoles and vegetables by more than 30% through Korean agricultural technology tailored to Guatemala," said Choe Gwang-ho, director general of the agency's technology cooperation bureau. "We will also expand the foundation for Korean agricultural machinery and inputs to enter overseas markets while strengthening food security."