South Chungcheong Province develops climate-resilient ginseng varieties

South Chungcheong Province has developed two new ginseng varieties with superior waterlogging tolerance and disease resistance, aiming to strengthen the market competitiveness of the region's ginseng industry in the face of climate change.

The Ginseng and Medicinal Herb Research Institute under the South Chungcheong Province Agricultural Research and Extension Services announced Monday that it completed plant variety protection registration for two self-developed ginseng varieties — Geumhyang and Geumganghyang — on Oct. 22.

The registration secures intellectual property rights over the new varieties and will allow the institute to distribute high-quality cultivars suited to domestic ginseng-growing conditions.

Ginseng requires a long cultivation period and is highly sensitive to weather and soil conditions. As climate change brings more frequent heavy rainfall and waterlogged soils, demand has grown for varieties that can withstand moisture damage and disease.

Geumhyang is well-suited to paddy-field cultivation due to its strong waterlogging tolerance and low incidence of reddish discoloration. The variety also showed higher concentrations of ginsenosides — Rg2, Re and Rb1 — than the control variety, pointing to its potential as a high-value ginseng ingredient.

Geumganghyang resists both reddish discoloration and angular leaf spot disease, and yields 18 percent more than conventional landraces, raising expectations that it will contribute to more stable production.

The provincial agricultural institute plans to establish cultivation techniques tailored to each variety's characteristics and expand distribution to farming households, helping growers cope with production instability caused by climate change.

"The development of these new varieties is significant because it gives ginseng farmers — who have struggled to secure cultivation sites due to continuous cropping damage — new options," said Kim Min-hee, a research scientist at the institute. "We will continue developing superior varieties that meet the needs of farmers in the field, and work to expand distribution and industrial use to enhance the competitiveness of South Chungcheong ginseng."