Gyeongbuk Health University's smart farm department holds agricultural machinery forum

The smart farm department of Gyeongbuk Health University held the "North Gyeongsang Province Agricultural Machinery Industry Forum" on Thursday at the main conference room on the second floor of the university's main building, with executives and staff from agricultural machinery companies in the region and officials from the Gimcheon Agricultural Technology Center in attendance.

Participants agreed that systematic support linking every stage of the process — from identifying field demand and developing technology to building prototypes, conducting on-farm demonstrations, improving performance, and advancing pilot projects through commercialization — is essential for turning field ideas into actual products.

The development of customized agricultural machinery suited to the major crops and farm sizes of the Gimcheon area was discussed as a key challenge.

Participants raised the need to develop and field-test compact autonomous unmanned spraying machines to reduce labor on grape farms — Gimcheon's signature crop — alongside small-scale machinery for cultivating field crops such as potatoes and onions.

Attendees also called for integrating AI, autonomous driving, automation and unmanned technologies into existing farm equipment to address rural aging and labor shortages, and for expanding the scope of agricultural mechanization beyond harvesting to include post-harvest processes such as drying and sorting.

Gyeongbuk Health University plans to incorporate the field opinions gathered at the forum into the operation of its agricultural AX innovation center and the Gimcheon City living lab.

University President Lee Eun-jik said the institution would "identify the agricultural machinery and smart farming technologies needed in the field, centered on Gimcheon's specialty crops such as grapes, and develop a Gimcheon-style agricultural AX model through a living lab where farmers directly participate in the demonstration and improvement process."